Weather Eye: Spring showers, breezes — even storms — will continue to refresh

Despite clouds and a stiff breeze at times we still hit 70 degrees in many locales Monday. Rainfall was light — only a few hundredths of an inch or a trace — in general. The exceptions came as thundershowers.

Tyler Mode of Battle Ground sent me a video of a real frog-strangler Monday afternoon.

Monday was more like early April than mid-May. A line of thunderstorms over the Battle Ground area moved east of the mountains late in the afternoon and a severe thunderstorm watch was issued for northeast Oregon, northern Idaho and western Montana.

There were plenty of dark clouds here, mainly toward the foothills, and I thought the gusty wind — over 30 mph at times — from the ocean was refreshing. Power outages were reported east of Portland, probably due to small broken branches’ hitting power lines. Small hail was reported in east Clark County and Portland.

That is how the week will go, with some clouds and a chance of showers. I measured May’s first rainfall on Sunday — 0.12 of an inch, then 0.02 of an inch Monday as of 5 p.m.

Saturday’s weather for the Hazel Dell Parade of Bands still looks dry although on the cool side this year. I see a slight chance of showers, but it’s still a reach to pinpoint just what may develop.

Someone asked me Monday: What about Memorial Day weekend? At this point, I told them, dry and mild. I always have to keep that pesky Rose Festival Low in mind as we head into the latter days of May. A forecaster’s nightmare.

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