A mild January ends gray

Although rainfall was on the light side Saturday around the Evergreen State, it was a gray winter day — fitting, I guess, for late January. Today will see lots of clouds as well, and only a small chance of showers. Our split flow will keep storms breaking apart off the coast, so the next two weeks we should see lots of clouds, mild temperatures and light rainfall.

Vancouver still has yet to see a freezing temperature this month, with the coldest at 34 degrees as recorded at Pearson Field. This will go down as one of the warmest Januaries on record.

We also finally got a month with above-normal precipitation — officially over 6.5 inches for Vancouver as of 5 p.m. Saturday — a rare occurrence over the past three years.

Several spots around the state will most likely end up with their warmest January on record, including Sea-Tac airport, Hoquiam, Bellingham, Olympia and Quillayute. As of Saturday, their average mean temperatures for January were very near or at the all-time warmest, with most having about 60 to 65 years of records. Portland’s January was its second-warmest.

Our warm region was certainly the complete opposite of the central and eastern parts of the country, where cold air from Canada plunged southward several times. And they are not through with winter back there, as more cold air will likely freeze things over.

I bet the Easterners are hoping the groundhog doesn’t see his shadow Tuesday. At this point, who would want six more weeks of winter?

Pat Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at weathersystems.com.