Weather Eye: Vancouver weather stays on the sunny side through weekend

Where were the warmest places in the Evergreen state on Monday? Vancouver? Close. Try the ocean beaches from Ilwaco to Forks where it was in the mid-70s while Vancouver was cooler at 73 at 5 p.m.

The reason why? Those offshore east to northeast winds blowing clear down to the ocean waters. As the wind descends to sea level, the air condenses and warms. Can you beat this mid-October weather?

Have you had a frost yet at your home? Many have. Many more will this week as the east wind dies down and we continue to have a dry air mass. Vancouver dipped to 35 early Monday morning. Some outlying areas were in the upper 20s and near the freezing point.

Speaking of chilly temperatures, while we were basking in 70-degree sunshine yesterday, the great state of Texas was shivering in the 30s and 40s with snow and rain almost everywhere.

How long will our sunny skies prevail? Through the week and the upcoming weekend. Then some time early next week, forecast models are showing rain moving inland from the ocean waters. That would bring back more typical October weather. Not sure how much precipitation, but I don’t think it will be a chilly rain. We will see. A few outside models are still showing high pressure holding. There’s a battle of the air masses brewing, folks.

While it’s not uncommon to have a long warm and dry period in October, over the weekend the outside air was on the dry side. Afternoon humidity dropped into the 10-20 percent range. That is lower than we see in the hottest part of the summer. Now that is uncommon.

We had some spotty, small wildfires as the ground and vegetation has really dried out with the low humidity and dry east winds. You might keep watering your shrubs and outdoor plants.

I’ll share last month’s rainfall from your friends and neighbors in my next column.

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