Nature is beginning to wake up as spring-like weather makes daily inroads into our lives. Sunshine on Saturday raised afternoon temperatures into the 50s, giving a few a bit of spring fever.
The frogs are back with their cheerful chorus, trees are budding and, yes, that grass is beginning to grow. Dan Hein, weather observer in Camas, was about ready to cut his last week just before it got covered in snow.
Speaking of snow, as we get a short break in the weather, southeastern Oregon had a winter weather advisory for several inches of snow, which is good news for the southern Cascades as well. This week will see a return of steadier rain and good mountain snows, with high temperatures a bit below normal depending on the cloud cover.
I am still compiling February rainfall reports and will share those with you Tuesday. I had to clean out my rain gauge Saturday, as it had a rather healthy crop of moss around the rim.
Next week at this time, we will enjoy an extra hour of daylight in the evening, which will be nice, I guess. It’ll be a little darker in early-morning hours as a trade-off.
The U.S. Climate Prediction Center is still calling for a cool spring, with below-normal temperatures in March, April and May. Precipitation is forecast to be above average in March, and there are equal chances of above or below average in April and May.
Already for the first few days of March, Vancouver is running almost a third of an inch above average on rainfall. The average mean temperature is only 42 degrees, three degrees below normal. Yep, cool and wet.
Last month, Vancouver had 4.45 inches of rain, 0.41 of an inch below average. The average mean temperature was 40.2 degrees, 1.8 degrees below normal.
See you on Tuesday!
Pat Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at http://weathersystems.com.
