I mentioned in Tuesday’s column about the warm start most locales in the Pacific Northwest are off to so far this year. Besides Seattle having its warmest January-February period, Salem, Ore., joins in that honor with an average mean temperature of 46.3 degrees, surpassing the old record of 45.8 degrees in 1934. And Salem’s records go way back to 1892. Portland had its third warmest with 45.8 degrees.
Vancouver recorded an average mean temperature for the first two months of 47.1 degrees, about 6.5 degrees above average. This is, according to my records, the warmest January-February period since 1992, which to no surprise was another El Niño winter. And already for the first three days of March, as of 5 p.m. Wednesday, Vancouver’s mean temperature is 49.2 degrees, 5.2 degrees above average.
And there is no indication for the next few days, at least, of a cooling trend. Looking ahead into next week, forecast charts indicate a more northwesterly flow, so I would expect our high temperatures to maybe drop below normal for a change. That means some snow for the mountains, albeit on the light side with a more showery regime.
It is a tough exercise to try and figure out just what our summer will be like. Back in 1992, the warm trend continued into March, and the summer was actually warm and dry. In other El Niño winters, the following summer was wet and cool. I certainly remember 1983; sorry I brought that one up.
