Weather Eye: After today, enjoy your workweek without rain jacket

As things would have it, of course, the clouds delayed their appearance until 6 or 7 Saturday morning, which allowed overnight lows to dip below freezing once again. The low in Vancouver early Saturday was 29 degrees, marking the sixth day with sub-freezing low temperatures.

It’s all about timing in weather forecasting — the atmosphere often plays tricks on us weather folks. That’s OK, especially if the foul weather holds off. The coldest morning of the last six was a chilly 26 degrees on Feb. 21.

Well, enough of that nonsense. Today we do have the clouds and rain back but only for a day. As of Saturday afternoon, forecast charts were pointing to another upcoming dry week for us — and warmer overnight lows mainly in the 30s and 40s. There could be some locations dipping to 32 degrees, but most will remain above.

Whatever rainfall we receive today could be a wrap for the month of February, but watch for that leap day. Leading into the dampness today, Vancouver was 2 inches below average for the month. I’m waiting in anticipation for March to arrive next weekend.

Amazing how the weather changes from one year to another. Here are a few words from two columns about this time last year: “Hail, hail, the weather is here, and another round of ice and cold is always near! What an opening for today’s column. There were some crazy hail storms Wednesday, with some covering the ground 1 and 2 inches deep. Traffic came to a crawl on Interstate 5 near the 78th Street exit in Hazel Dell as hail covered the freeway.”

And another one: “Well, here we go again. This column may sound like a repeat of ones earlier this month. On Saturday, the National Weather Service had a winter storm watch up for much of the area, including Clark County, for tonight and Monday.”

February 2019 will go down as the coldest one in 30 years since the icebox of 1989. We certainly dodged a bullet this year. Now on to spring.

Enjoy your workweek without the rain jacket.