Weather Eye: Weekend expected to be dry, mild; cooler air to make a return

The steady rained ended just in time for Halloween trick-or-treaters with scattered showers only lingering throughout the evening hours. Mild temperatures and some occasional brisk winds were common as well.

I don’t have the final numbers for October rainfall as I write my column Wednesday afternoon, but I can say that earlier in the day most of the urban areas surpassed the 6-inch mark, about twice the average.

Nothing too exciting about the weather in our neck of the woods for several days, maybe some light rain here and there but drying over the weekend, with warm afternoon high temperatures well into the 60s — maybe even a 70 here and there on Sunday! Then next week we start to cool off back into the 50s as colder air filters inland.

Don’t know what to think about the disappearance of the backyard squirrel that runs back and forth atop my fence. It must have been too wet for the little critter. Either that or he has his stash of winter nuts completed. Stay tuned.

I looked back what I was writing exactly one year ago in my column, “A few widely scattered showers sneaked into my Halloween dry forecast but for the most part it was dry and cool. About 3 p.m. a nice squall rolled through the west side of Vancouver with gusty winds and rain producing puddles. Jackie Beyea in the Felida area remarked, ‘Twas just a tempest in a teapot. The weather of course seems to always play a few tricks with us.'”

Here’s a neat website with lots of winter weather information for Western Washington: Take Winter By Storm.

Patrick Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at Weather Systems.