Weather Eye: With clouds and rain, October returns to normal

The final days of October are behaving in typical fashion, with clouds, rain and wind. We shake our heads looking back at the first three weeks of the month, wondering, “Wow, what happened here?” At that time, we had record-setting warmth and dryness.

Despite the cooler weather, Vancouver is still running 6 degrees above the average temperature for October. We are still about 1 inch of rain below average so far this month, but over the weekend and on Halloween, we will race to the finish line.

Wednesday saw some good downpours and, in a few locations, standing water on the roadways due to clogged drains. Yep, the leaves are falling, too.

Timberline Lodge reported a foot of new snow Wednesday afternoon, which is exciting for snow lovers anxious to hit the slopes, I bet. Unfortunately, warmer air aloft arrives today and lingers through the weekend with the next weather system. Snow levels will be above Timberline for most of the duration. The good news, however, is that next week looks cool and wet, with several days of mountain snow.

With partly sunny skies today, we could reach 60 degrees — something we haven’t seen for a few days. It will become breezy later today and tonight, with south to southwest winds, enough to blow around those inflatable Halloween decorations. The coastal beaches will be windier, with gusts in the 40-to-45-mph range.

Trick-or-treaters should prepare for rain showers in the late afternoon and evening hours. No surprises there.

Last October, we had 3.73 inches of rain, above the normal of 3.41 inches. I doubt we will manage that this year unless the storm this weekend into Monday carries some of the moisture that is streaming up from the tropics far offshore.

October 2016 was the wettest ever for much of Western Washington. The unrelenting rain pushed Vancouver’s total to 7.50 inches. We ended up with 8.22 inches — a record for the wettest October ever.

What can we expect for November? It can be one of our wettest months, and the outlook at least for the first 10 days of next month calls for more rainy weather.

Take good care.