Weather Eye: La Nina could bring cooler winter with plenty of snow

I’m getting so excited as the first day of the meteorological beginning of autumn arrives Wednesday. Fall is my favorite time of the year.

We enjoyed a high of 86 degrees Saturday here in Vancouver, and we should be in the low 80s today before we see a sharp cooldown on Monday. In fact, Monday through Wednesday will see highs of only 70 to 75 degrees.

The cause: another one of those weather systems sliding across British Columbia bringing plenty of cool air from the Gulf of Alaska — our weather pattern for some time now. Still no rain (maybe a sprinkle) this week, so August will likely end with a paltry .02 of an inch in the official Vancouver rain gauge.

In a bit of TV weather news, meteorologist Anne Campolongo has left KPTV in Portland for KCCI in Des Moines, Iowa. In the last three years here, she has always shown a sunny personality. She said it is difficult for her to leave, as she started her career in the Pacific Northwest. I wish the best of everything to Anne.

Reports are coming in on the appearance of our fall buddies, the woolly bears. Many that I have seen are sporting a narrow band of orange, which means a cold winter and likely lowland snow.

Nature is giving us signs that another La Niña is developing; that means cooler winter weather and lots of snow in the mountains, which we will need. The odds for lowland snow increase with La Niña.

It also means drier and warmer weather for California and the Southwest. They need more of an El Niño weather pattern, which brings rain and snow.