Weather Eye: Get out and enjoy fresh air, break in weather action

Dry weather continues, which sometimes is rare in the middle of winter. We have quickly changed to a cooler weather pattern and the forecast includes highs only in the 40s and lows around freezing, depending on the cloudiness. Colder in outlying areas, of course.

As the week wears on, colder air aloft will filter in overhead and lower freezing levels close to 2,000 feet. A weak weather system will attempt to increase clouds and provide light showers Thursday, but it is possible we remain dry. Not much rain expected.

In time the coldest air arrives in the second half of the weekend. A stronger system brings plenty of moisture and the mountains receive a good dump of the white stuff. The mountains need it badly. I believe snow levels will drop low enough that some of our faithful weather observers in the foothills will be reporting some snow falling.

Here at city levels, none is expected at this point. It doesn’t mean we couldn’t see snowflakes mixing in heavier showers, but just a chilly rain expected in the lowlands. We’ll see how this pattern evolves, but next week looks cool with plenty of mountain snow. Of course, we keep the weather eye out for you and will give you the latest on Thursday.

I’ll also share the local rainfall amounts from December this week and we will see how we are doing precipitation-wise for the first half of winter. Since we consider winter December, January and February, we are slightly past midpoint.

Even if we receive no additional rain this month, we already are at the average amount. In Vancouver, 6.15 inches are in the gauge, which is 2.75 inches above average so far in January. With more on the way next week, we’ll be way above average in that department, which is good.

Also, looking at the first half of winter since Dec. 1, we are running in one of the top 10 warmest first half of winter weather. Across the river, Portland is in their warmest. Olympia is in their third warmest.

Enjoy the break in weather action, get out and breathe some fresh air as the east winds arrive. Reach for the warmer jacket. Be safe.