Weather Eye: After nearly a month of rain, the sun has finally come out

Taking in the clear skies and sunshine framed by the snowpacked mountains to our east Wednesday, it reminded me of a song. Especially after some 30 days straight with clouds and rain.

In the classic movie and Broadway play Annie, the young red-headed girl sings, exhilaratedly, “The sun will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there’ll be sun! Just thinking about tomorrow clears away the cobwebs and the sorrow until there’s none! When I’m stuck in a day that’s gray, and lonely, I just stick out my chin and grin, and say, oh the sun will come out tomorrow, so ya gotta hang on until tomorrow, come what may. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you tomorrow!”

I’m sure many of us were singing that tune during the last four weeks, and maybe getting a bit discouraged by the weather. But we made it after some 16.03 inches of rain fell in Vancouver. A record? Of course.

Now we will enjoy a few days of sunshine to brighten our spirits and ring in the New Year! It will be chilly ,especially if exposed to those strong Coho, or east, winds. The wind chill will be sharp.

Highs will be in the 35- to 40-degree with lows of 20 to 25 in the wind-sheltered areas and 25 to 32 in the windy locations. I expect several die-hard weather geeks will be on the steps of the Vista House at Crown Point, bracing themselves against gusts in the 80 to 100 mph range.

East of the mountains in the Columbia Basin, a large, cold pool of air has formed over snow-covered ground, and with winds pushing westward against the Cascades, low clouds have formed. This will feed the Columbia River Gorge with cold and dry air through the weekend. The earliest sign of precipitation may be next week. But it may just remain dry.

We are phasing into the strong El Niño stage, with expected precipitation to be way below normal and warmer than average temperatures, although we won’t feel that for a while. Hopefully, our snowpack remains solid and we can add some more despite they odds of low snowfall from January through March.

Patrick Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at http://patricktimm.com.

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