Weather Eye: More showers coming, followed next week by warm weather

It looks like we have some rain moving in today as scheduled, continuing into Friday with showers. Hopefully, the showers will subside by Saturday morning, and we have a basically dry weekend! But no promises as there could still be widely scattered showers left over for Saturday.

Next week starts out with warm temperatures reaching the 70s, and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone hits that wonderful 80-degree mark.

We had several frosts this week in the colder areas, especially Wednesday morning. The rooftops were white here in Salmon Creek. I had 32 degrees right around sunrise.

Just because warmer weather is heading our way, we are not out of the woods with frost just yet. The main parts of Vancouver are probably safe, but outlying areas from Felida north are still prone to frost even into the first two weeks of May. That certainly goes for Brush Prairie and Battle Ground. This would happen only after a sharp cold frontal passage and clear skies overnight. There still is snow on Silver Star Mountain, so keep an eye on that when planting tender seedlings in the garden or setting out tomato plants.

When I moved here from across the river years ago, I found that out the hard way and then listened to the old-timers talk about possible frost when snow is on Silver Star. It seems to hold true much of the time.

When I did extensive gardening, I never planted warm-weather crops until Mother’s Day weekend, and even then caught cold a few times, ha, ha.

Enjoy the weekend and watch out for possible heavy rain late Thursday or Friday.

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