It is smooth sailing this week in the weather department as clear sunny skies will rule the scene. We started off with some fog in the morning hours Monday but as east winds began to filter in the skies cleared and we enjoyed abundant winter sunshine. Temperatures in the afternoon were in the low to mid-40s around the county.
It will be just about a repeat all week with cold overnight lows in the 20s, maybe some upper teens in the colder outlying areas. The main portion of Vancouver may be exposed to the east winds overnight, keeping lows near freezing but of course feeling much colder. The weak winter sunshine will muster highs in the 42- to 46-degree range.
November rainfall amounts are coming in and I will share those in an upcoming column soon. As you know we fell way short of where we should have been in November. Now, December is getting off to a dry beginning. The good news is it appears we may go into an unsettled period next week with lowlands rain and mountain snows. We will see some clouds appear on Friday and a couple attempts at raindrops over the weekend by two weather systems.
If it is cold enough and if any rain does fall, I would expect sleet or freezing rain from Washougal eastward into the Gorge. Maybe in the mountain passes, as well, until we break up the inversion with cold air in lower layers of the atmosphere and warmer air aloft. We’ll see.
