Between midnight and 4 p.m. Saturday, as Vancouver had 0.96 of an inch of rain, Bellingham had just a trace. Of inland Oregon and Washington lowlands, the Vancouver/Portland area got the heaviest rain. But no worry, the band of heavy rain was moving northward to our friends in Puget Sound.
The Oregon Coast had a soaker, with over 1 inch of rain as of Saturday afternoon and high winds in the mix. Web cams show lots of rain in the Cascade passes and all the way up to Timberline. What little snow there is was soaking up all that rain. Good news is, it changes to snow today all the way down to the passes eventually. The bad news is, it all ends by Monday morning.
This week, high pressure returns for low clouds and fog and inversions. East winds may blow again and maybe clear the county out, we’ll see. Kind of a repeat of last week. January will certainly go in the record books as a boring weather month.
Looking into the crystal ball, there is a hint that winds aloft may be changing, giving the eastern U.S. a break in winter’s chill and giving us a cool-down. It will be tough to break that persistent high pressure off the coast that has thwarted the mechanics of good mountain snows. But we keep hoping here, don’t we?
