The rainfall Friday wasn’t all that much here in the lowlands but enough to officially end our 51-day dry streak. Vancouver officially recorded .02 of an inch at Pearson airfield. Higher amounts fell along our coastline and in our nearby foothills. Phil Delany measured nearly a third of an inch at his rain gauge above Dole Valley. Weather observer Murphy Dennis on Rawson Road near Clark County Rifles had .41 of an inch.
Those were hefty amounts compared to the regular reporting stations in western Washington. The Long Beach Peninsula reported .14 of an inch Friday and .30 of an inch Saturday as of 5 p.m. This is what we needed to wet the forest and temporarily bring down the wildfire threat a notch or so.
Some light rain and drizzle reached northern Clark County about 1 or 2 p.m. Saturday and worked its way southward to the Columbia River. As of 5 p.m., Vancouver had measured only a trace at the reporting station. Perhaps a little more fell after that.
Today, the skies clear; on Monday, we begin a transition toward warmer and hotter weather. Forecast charts tell me we will see highs in the 95-to-105-degree range Wednesday through Sunday. Yep, an extended hot spell. No extremes like we had in June, but you know, the regular really hot weather we occasionally get. That will quickly evaporate whatever moisture fell the past couple of days.
