Weather Eye: With wind chills near 0 degrees, stay inside today

How about a winter storm warning, a wind chill advisory and a wind advisory all in effect for today? It is going to be brutal, so stay inside if you can and listen to the latest weather reports as this winter event unfolds.

As soon as winter officially arrived early Wednesday afternoon, the east winds arrived as well. Our temperatures began to fall first in east county and then in downtown Vancouver.

By dark, it was in the 20s almost everywhere, with overnight lows early today expected to drop into the teens in the colder locations and near 20 in the windy areas. Wind chills could be close to 0 degrees.

Precipitation was expected to fall in the early to late afternoon today, maybe as snowflakes or sleet progressing to freezing rain by tonight. That freezing rain will be off and on all day Friday.

I don’t expect most of our area to rise above freezing until Saturday morning or later. In our eastern locations near the gorge, it may remain freezing until late Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. I hope it will warm up faster, but as you know, it usually takes longer than those computer models indicate.

Moderate to heavy rain may fall Christmas Day through most of next week, and with snow levels above ski areas, some river flooding is possible.

We’ll see how much rain falls. We are running about 2.5 inches below average so far this month, but we may erase that in the next week.

Before we get the warmer rains, let’s catch up and report local rainfall for November: Bob Starr, Cougar, 20.27 inches; Jim Knoll, Five Corners, 6.43 inches; Robin Ruzek, Lakeshore, 5.06 inches; Chuck Houghten, Hockinson Heights, 10.60 inches; Tyler Mode, Battle Ground, 8.73 inches; Bob Mode, Minnehaha, 4.59 inches; Irv St. Germain, Prune Hill, 7.35 inches; Ellen Smart, Ridgefield, 6.50 inches; Dick Lenahan, Meadow Glade, 7.82 inches; Dave Campbell, 1 mile west of Heisson, 9.85 inches; and Judy Weber, west of View, 8.43 inches.

Our friend Roland Derksen in Vancouver, B.C., reported 6.48 inches. The official rainfall for our Vancouver was 5.25 inches, close to the average of 5.51 inches.

Be safe, and we’ll chat on Christmas Day.