Weather Eye: Dry weather on its way; will groundhog see his shadow?

Monday was a gray drippy day with a light rain falling almost all day. Rain totals were not heavy, but it was enough to make it a gloomy winter day for sure. More rainy weather will be upon us today with lowering freezing levels and possibly some snow once again in our foothills. Wednesday, a few scattered showers around, and I believe at this point it will be dry Thursday through Saturday.

Still no snow or freezing weather here locally. If we get clearing overnight later in the week, there could be some light frost here and there. No big deal. If we do not get any cold air and moisture combination by Feb. 20 or so, we are out of the woods with severe winter weather. The midsection and eastern section of the U.S. are being clobbered by snow and ice.

It will stay that way all week and into the weekend as more cold air is forecast to drop south from Canada. At one time forecast charts were hinting we would get leftovers, but right now we say no.

January was the wettest month since February 2017. Vancouver had a total of 7.49 inches, nearly 2 inches above average at 1.99 inches. January 2020, we measured almost the same with 7.35 inches. That total in February 2017 was a record at 10.38 inches of rain.

Today is Groundhog’s Day and Punxsutawney Phil will be woken from a long winter’s nap to peek outside and see if his shadow casts upon the ground. This year if it did, it would be on nearly a foot of fresh powder snow in Punxsutawney, Pa. I doubt he sees his shadow.

Locally at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, if he has any relatives there, I doubt they see their shadow either. Early spring then, you say? Phil’s accuracy rate is 50 percent, they say. OK, flip a coin, heads early spring.

Regardless, the spring equinox is March 20, so we wait a while. The woolly bears so far have been correct with a mild winter for us. Yay for them.