Winter-like weather continues to hang on with blustery winds, low snow levels, hail, thunder, graupel and rain. Did I leave anything out?
Of course, add the sunshine between the squalls, although the strong late March sun had difficulty getting us warmed up to where we should be, which is almost at 60 degrees now. The cold air mass will finally drift off to the east as weak high pressure builds in over us.
A strong storm will develop today off the southern Oregon Coast, but the high winds and heavy rain will remain well south of us in Southern Oregon and Northern California.
As the low stalls there for a couple of days, the wrap-around moisture could move far enough north to bring us a risk of a rain shower. However, we will have an offshore flow of air from the east that will tend to dry out any moisture moving our way.
The week actually doesn’t look that bad for Oregon’s spring break, with highs back in the 50s, and I’m looking for 62 degrees on Wednesday. As the week wanes, another cold trough of low pressure will set up over the weekend, and we’ll drop back into the 40s, with lowering snow levels again.
Spring break next week at this time for Washington schools may be cold and damp, but we’ll see how the atmosphere behaves.
One of our faithful weather observers, Bill Sobolewski on Livingston Mountain above Camas/Washougal at 1,000 feet elevation, had 7 inches of snow Friday into early Saturday morning: 4 inches on Friday and 3 inches Saturday. When will this ever end, you say?
As I mentioned here earlier, the outlook for the remainder of March and all of April calls for colder-than-average temperatures. Hold off on the temptation to get those annual flowers now appearing in garden centers. The greater Vancouver area normally sees its last frost in the first week of April. Areas from Hazel Dell to the north and east can have frosts into the middle of May.
Vancouver is running a half-inch above normal with the rainfall and 3.5 degrees below average with temperatures. A cold and wet month so far.
Take care, and we’ll chat on Tuesday.
