As much as we tried we just couldn’t get a general snowfall down in the Vancouver area over the weekend. The foothills received over a half-foot of snow; Longview/Kelso also had white ground. Snow fell in the strangest places. At noon Monday it was snowing in Brookings, Ore., on the extreme Southern Oregon coast. Now that is a rarity!
The weather system responsible for bringing in the really cold weather stalled and spun over Northwest Oregon rather than moving off to the southeast. That kept the modified arctic air to our north and northeast. East winds were blowing at a pretty good clip Monday afternoon through the Gorge and fanning out over Clark County. Dry and cold air was slowly on its way.
Dew points were falling and temperatures holding around freezing. However, that low was forecast to spin off to the southwest out over the ocean and allow the real chilly temperatures to invade the area before turning around and marching across Central and Southern Oregon on Wednesday.
What looked like a massive arctic invasion a few days ago now looks like a so-so outbreak with temperatures warmer than forecast. We will still have the east wind most of the week. Computer forecast models were at odds about bringing us some snow or ice Wednesday and then again by the weekend. As the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Portland wrote Sunday, “Flip a coin.”
