Weather Eye: 2022’s extremes: High of 101 degrees, low of 21

Happy New Year! The past year featured several weather events causing extremes in temperatures, rain and snowfall. I’ll share a brief review of the highlights as recorded at Pearson airfield, the official weather station for Vancouver.

Our highest temperature of 2022 was 101 degrees, recorded twice: on July 26 and 30. The coldest was 21 degrees on Dec. 17, 22 and 23.

Our heaviest one-day rainfall total was 2.60 inches, on Dec. 26. That caused some major street and lowland flooding here in Clark County.

Our heaviest one-day snowfall was — can you believe it? — on April 11. While downtown Vancouver measured about 2 inches of the white stuff, Salmon Creek and Felida communities had between 4 and 7 inches of snow. Our weather observers in the foothills to our east had upward of 11 inches. It was a heavy, wet snow, considering the high and low that day were 51 degrees and 33 degrees.

Everyone got snow, and most areas had snow-covered roads at daybreak on April 11. The snow caused trees to sag onto power lines and led to scattered power outages. It wasn’t only evergreen trees but also newly leafed-out deciduous trees that collapsed and snapped due to the heavy loads.

I have seen snow stick on the ground here as late as April 14 but never accumulate on roadways as this storm did. Was this a 100-year storm? Most likely, as I couldn’t find a heavier April snowfall in the decades of weather records I perused.

As of 5 p.m. Saturday, we had recorded 6.89 inches of rain in December, and that may have risen slightly, as there were still a few showers here and there. Regardless, we were above the December average of 6.07 inches.

It will be partly sunny today after some morning fog, with seasonal temperatures. The main jet stream is to our south into California, so we are on the cool side. A weak weather system will slide by on Monday, and snowflakes could fall to low levels, but nothing is expected to cause problems. Any precipitation will be light.

The rest of the week appears to be unsettled, with rain and windy conditions Wednesday and Friday. No snow or ice.

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