Weather Eye: Just a sneeze too moist for a record dry first quarter

No weather records were set Monday in Vancouver after record or near-record highs over the weekend. We managed 78 degrees on Saturday for a new record high and although it was very warm on Easter Sunday, the high of 75 degrees fell short of the record 78 degrees set in 1911. Portland airport did set a new record both days over the weekend.

Jan. 1 through March 31 was Vancouver’s second-driest first quarter. Only 6.14 inches of rain was recorded, just behind the record of 6.11 inches in 1929. The average rainfall during this three-month period is 13.10 inches. Last year, we recorded 17.34 inches of rain, what a difference a year made for sure!

As mentioned here earlier, we had a shot at the driest January-March, but managed to eke out several hundredths of an inch of rain from those scattered showers last week to knock us out of first place.

It remains amazing that despite the lack of precipitation here in the valley, the Cascades are close to normal on the snowpack, which is good news up there.

Thanks to a few warm days, Vancouver finished up with pretty close to a normal average mean temperature in March — it was 47.7 degrees, 0.3 of a degree below average. Rainfall totaled 1.58 inches, 1.99 inches below average.

Looking ahead, we should have another dry day today and Wednesday continuing mild. Then forecast charts indicate that a deep trough of low pressure will be moving in, with some rain and showers that should last into the weekend.

It’s not quite certain just how heavy that rain will be, but if things line up correctly, we could see a good burst of rain late in the week. Then back to those April showers. We will see how this pans out.

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