Weather Eye: Our weather might be in transition

Well I must admit right off the bat that we had a few more sprinkles than I expected on Tuesday evening and Wednesday, although the rainfall amounts were still very light considering this time of the year.

We will see a slight pattern change, where weak weather systems will move through from time to time bringing clouds and light rain and some snowfall in the mountains. I do not foresee any major snowfall for the lowlands, flooding or arctic outbreaks at this time. We will be out of the woods for those events in a couple of weeks.

As long as high pressure tends to linger to the west, however, we will have to keep a sharp weather eye out in case it retrogrades westward and allows cold air from the north to drop down over us.

Last year around Feb. 24 we had some modified arctic air and a shot of snow if you remember. It is still winter, although the projected wet and cold La Niña winter so far has been kind of a dud, weather-wise anyway.

Weather statistics for Vancouver for the first seven days of the month run like this: average mean temperature, 43.8 degrees, .8 of a degree above average. Rainfall was only .02 of an inch, 1.22 inches below normal (as of 3 p.m. Wednesday another tenth of an inch had fallen). The highest and lowest temperatures were on Feb. 6 with a high of 57 after a low of 26 degrees.

At least the east winds have subsided for now and perhaps lots of the debris of down branches and twigs can get swept up. That was the longest stretch of east winds this winter, lasting about five days.

Enjoy the rest of your week and I will pass along January’s rainfall from around the local area as well as a few weather observers’ comments in Sunday’s column.

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