Weather Eye: Here come the hot, sunny afternoons

A little bit of May weather hung around Saturday, with clouds and a few spotty sprinkles, but amounts were mostly just a trace or thereabouts.

Wasn’t Saturday supposed to be sunny and warm, you ask?

Well, there again, forecasting is not an exact science. The shortwave trough that was projected to stay to our north on Saturday dropped a hundred miles or so south and presto! Today we will see the remnants with clouds, maybe a shower or drizzle scattered around and cooler with highs 65 to 70 depending on how many sun breaks, if any, we get.

Monday through Wednesday we will have for sure sunny weather and highs around 80 degrees or so. We could see some brief morning clouds but plenty of afternoon sun; count on that! Finally a chance to do a little sunbathing and fire up the evening barbecue for dinner.

Saturday afternoon, Vancouver and the Puget Sound region were in a tie with afternoon temperatures both being in the low 70s.

Monthly report

May was the third-wettest at the Portland airport, where records go back to 1940. Vancouver ended up with 4.89 inches of rain, 2.42 inches above average. Haven’t seen that much rain in a month since December! I will report the local rainfall reports from your friends and neighbors soon. Guess who had over 10 inches of rain last month. Hint: It was more than one person!

We ended up pretty close to normal, with the average mean temperature at 59 degrees, 0.9 degrees above average.

The rain fell in the last half of the month with 14 rainy days. One day, May 22, we set a record with more than an inch of rain. Our temperatures topped out at 85 degrees on both May 5 and May 11; the low was 35 degrees on May 1. An even 50 degrees between the high and low.

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