Wednesday’s cold front was fast moving. It only dropped between one-tenth and one-quarter inch of rain around the area, bringing our monthly total to 3 inches. With cooler temperatures, the high in Vancouver as of 5 p.m. was 62 degrees. With the temperature at 60 degrees, those west winds added to the chill, and it felt closer to 50 degrees with wind gusts of 30 mph.
East of the mountains the winds were much higher. Wind speeds in Eastern Washington and Oregon were upward of 50 mph with plenty of blowing dust reported. It is nice to have our storm fronts move through so quickly and keep the period of rain to a short interval, but strong winds behind the storm can cause havoc.
Today cold air will drop over us for scattered showers, but those showers will remain on the light side unless we get a thunderstorm. As of this writing, the thinking was any thunder would be closer to the foothills. But as always, I like to mention all the possibilities. Showers imply some sunny periods as well, but it will remain cool.
On the bright side of my column is that higher pressure will move closer, and we turn off that cold tap of air from the north. We breeze into the mid-60s on Friday with partly sunny skies, then shift gears to the 70s on Saturday and Sunday. What about next week as we move closer to the holiday weekend?
