Weather Eye: At long last, warmth will arrive this week

It is always best to start a round of writing with good news, and boy, do I have some to share with you: Finally, warm high pressure will build inland Tuesday and remain with us all week.

The core of the high pressure has a warm air mass that will get us into the 70s Wednesday and beyond. We may reach 80 degrees and inch up a few degrees above that — if forecast models are correct.

I know, they have a bad track record so far this spring, right? But nearly all of them agree, for a change, so we are placing all bets on an extended warm and dry spell. We need it, everyone. If cool showers today and Monday are considered bad news, well, folks, that is it.

So far, April is running a little over 4 degrees below average, and this end-of-the-month warmth will cut into that a little. We have had only one 60-degree day this month: April 14, with 61 degrees. Our rainfall as of 5 p.m. Saturday was 4.74 inches, over half of what would be normal. With the showers today and Monday, we could top 5 inches, but that could be it for the month.

This month, Olympia has had its coldest average high temperatures on record, and Seattle has had its second-coldest. Amazing how many cold-weather records we’ve seen around the Northwest this month.

In Vancouver, it is one of the coldest Aprils on record. With the sudden warmup that’s expected, we’ll have to wait until the month is over to tally the data.

April 2011 was quite chilly: 3.4 degrees below normal. What about last year? Even with two 70-degree days, April 2022 ended up 3.4 degrees below average.

Of course, we had a couple of snowy days thrown in as well. Remember those? April 2022 also had 5.41 inches of precipitation, which included melted-down snowfall.

Endure the cool showery conditions, and then look forward to warming and, I hope, summer vacation-type weather the rest of the week.

We’ll chat on Tuesday, sunny side up.

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