Chilly weather continues with low snow levels and not much change the rest of the week. We will have a break in the action Wednesday after a cold morning with lows in the 20s. Partly sunny skies are on tap and temperatures in the low 40s. Rain or snow showers Thursday through Sunday with the snow level varying between 500 feet and 1,500 feet. Our foothill communities will be under the gun for more accumulating snow.
The extended outlook continues to call for cooler-than-average temperatures into mid-March and for the next seven to 10 days I cannot see us reaching 50 degrees, at least at this point. You can always keep your hopes up. I do not foresee any arctic air heading our way, which is good news. So any snow that falls here at city levels would be mainly at night and under heavy showers. Otherwise, we keep it in higher elevations or a spattering on your windshield. Nature could surprise us but not like last week. That was enough for the entire year as far as surprises go, ha-ha.
Wednesday is the first day of March and that means us weather and climate folks turn the page from winter to spring. Of course, that doesn’t mean the atmosphere changes in a positive way on that day. It may not even show an uptick on the first day of astronomical spring in three weeks. It looks like a cooler-than-average month if the outlook for March holds true.
With that low spinning off the mouth of the Columbia Monday, that kept us and the coastline with a slight easterly wind and temperatures in the upper 30s to 40 degrees. Further east, the counterclockwise circulation of the low pressure system brought mild south winds to the Columbia Basin where afternoon temperatures bounced into the mid to upper 40s. Not often the coast is colder than east of the mountains.
