Weather Eye: Farewell to our rainiest April in the last 20 years

April continued its onslaught of rain showers Saturday, and some of them were heavy.

I drove through one heavy shower in the Hazel Dell area, and the raindrops were the size of quarters hitting the windshield. I felt like I was in a car wash.

We surpassed the rainiest April in 20 years, which was 5.03 inches in 2003. However, the all-time April rainfall record since 1900 was 7.72 inches in 1993. Boy, I remember that well. Trying to get my garden in Hazel Dell ready for spring planting was frustrating, to say the least. I seriously thought about planting rice.

Officially, as of 4 p.m. Saturday, there was 5.50 inches in the rain gauge in Vancouver, and the showers were ongoing. It was possible that a thunderstorm with hail might have moved into the county. How about at your house?

The amazing thing about the scattered nature of Saturday’s showers was that in some locations, ballgames were rained out. In other neighborhoods, lawn mowers could be heard and folks were out walking their dogs under partly sunny skies. So it goes for April.

And here we are, a new month of weather. Welcome to May, and happy May Day.

Although the showers are forecast to stay away during the day and we could warm into the low 60s with nature’s grace, more wet weather is not far away: Moderate rain is forecast for late today and Monday.

Unsettled weather is on tap all week. The big exception is Wednesday, when sunny skies will prevail and we’ll bask in 70-degree temperatures. The rest of this week, we’ll remain below the 65-degree normal high.

Believe it or not, May usually has fewer hours of cloudiness than June does. Those familiar morning clouds and afternoon sunshine are June’s norm, it seems.

I hope this new month will have fewer clouds and less moisture than we saw in April, and we can plant corn rather than rice in our backyard gardens.

We’ll chat again on Tuesday.