Hard to believe while writing my column and looking outside early Saturday afternoon with all that sunshine and temperatures hovering around the 40-degree mark that today was going to be bitter cold and windy.
A modified arctic air mass was working its way southward Saturday afternoon through Western Washington with strong north-northeast winds and very dry air reported at numerous weather stations. This cold air will generate gusty east winds, especially in the Gorge, where wind chills will be below zero and peak winds 60 mph or better.
Locally, the cold air will remain with us the next few days before some moderation, but at this time no snow to speak of. This could change later in the week as moisture travels eastward to the south of us. There may have been a few flurries overnight and today which were in the forecast as the cold air arrived.
I am a bit concerned that our current chilly weather will be more like a balmy memory if some long-range computer models are correct. We could get another arctic blast next weekend which would rival record cold temperatures. That still is something to ponder. The other extreme is we go back to a rainy and stormy period.
