Weather Eye: Pretty typical January weather but no freezing

Before time slips away, let’s review rainfall from December now that the weather department has settled back down into routine winter weather events.

OK, rainfall from your friends and neighbors. Claudia Chiasson, Carson, 9.94 inches; Rob Starr, Cougar, 14.59 inches; Robin Ruzek, Lake Shore, 5.64 inches; Tyler Mode, Battle Ground, 6.22 inches; Murphy Dennis, Rawson Road, 10.04 inches; Jim Knoll, Orchards, 5.37 inches; Judy Darke, Felida, 2.14 inches; Ellen Smart, Ridgefield, 6.40 inches; Bob Mode, Minnehaha, 4.64 inches; Dave Campbell, 1 mile west of Heisson, 5.54 inches; Chuck Houghten, Hockinson Heights, 6.98 inches; Irv St. Germain, Prune Hill, 5.43 inches; Larry Lebsack. Barberton, 5.82 inches; and Bill Sobolewski, Livingston Mountain, 6.68 inches. Our friend Roland Dersken in Vancouver, B.C., had 4.44 inches, his 10th-driest. In comparison, the rainfall for Vancouver USA was 4.67 inches,2.1 inches below average.

After that balmy 62 degrees on Jan. 3, we finally had our first (and only) freezing temperature this month with 31 degrees Thursday. We really escaped what could have been a cold and windy week.

Speaking of cold and windy, three years ago in at this time I wrote the following after an episode of blustery east winds and cold with lots of snow. “Slowly but surely the ice and snow continue to melt. Even though temperatures rose above freezing late Monday, the combination of compact snow and ice and water on top of that made for sloppy roadways and sidewalks. I don’t recall January being this cold since 1979 as our average mean temperature in Vancouver is only 28 degrees, 13 degrees below normal.”

Vancouver’s average mean temperature, which was some eight degrees above normal earlier this month, is now 43.9 degrees, 2.9 degrees above average. And, not to be outdone, we finally inched up to “normal” for the month in the rainfall category. As of late Saturday, Vancouver had 3.44 inches in the bucket.

The week’s weather outlook calls for mostly dry weather today and most of Monday and then rain or showers with mountain snow the rest of the week. Pretty typical January weather but no freezing.