Weather Eye: Steady rain returns for the weekend

We enjoyed another springlike day Wednesday with highs once again hovering around that 60-degree mark. The early morning hours were chilly, with Vancouver reporting a low of 30 degrees and in the 20s in the outlying areas. Plenty of frost on the grass and rooftops.

Frosts are still common, after all, technically, the calendar says winter, right? The last frosts of the season for the greater Vancouver area are in April and in most of the outlying areas it can be well into May.

Clouds will increase today and with any luck the rain will hold off until after dark tonight. Then we have steady rain or showers in the forecast through the weekend into early next week. But there will be periods of dry times as well. It will be cooler, certainly not 60 degrees or higher.

Snow levels will drop and at times be down to 1,000 to 2,000 feet. Our foothills will get more snow at times. I have a hunch that the higher foothills like Silver Star will have a coating of snow well into the spring. That always reminds me of what the old timers here told me decades ago, “Careful when planting the garden. If there is snow on Silver Star mountain, a frost is possible here in the lowlands.” My experience is that the old saying is quite true.

With cooler weather and some rain on tap here in the lowlands, here are a couple old words of wisdom. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said long ago, “The best thing we can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.” And rain it will.

When we have days and days of rain we sometimes wonder where the sunshine is.

“What a cold and rainy day, where on earth is the sun hid away?”

— Natalie Merchant

As I said the other day, March is a fickle month. Changing frequently, erratic, unpredictable. And for no reason at all except to give us humans something to talk about. Yep, that’s weather.