Weather Eye: Holiday weekend won’t be a washout in Clark County

A little taste of autumn weather today, one day before the official beginning of the meteorological fall season. Looking at satellite pictures Wednesday afternoon, today’s weather system was moving at a fast pace and although it is our first head-on experience with a storm in many months, rainfall amounts didn’t look all that impressive.

But we will take what we can get and expected amounts could be a quarter- to one-half inch of rain with highest amounts in the foothills. That would be more than enough to settle the dust, at least for a while. The next chance of light rain or showers would be Sunday or Monday. The holiday weekend certainly won’t be a washout.

With the storm track shifted down over Western Washington, we will see much cooler temperatures, although Saturday we inch into the 80s with more sunshine. Otherwise, we will have highs in the 70s for a while. No hot weather on tap, thank goodness.

The monthly rainfall total as of 5 p.m. Wednesday in Vancouver was one-tenth of an inch. About one-half inch is the average for all of August. If we were lucky enough to get some heavier rain today, we could reach that half-inch mark or more. Fingers crossed.

I’ve had several emails from readers asking if this is the beginning of the rainy season and will there be any more warm and dry days for outdoor projects. Sure, there will be. It isn’t unusual to shift gears into autumn weather in late August with cooler weather and periods of rain. However, it is highly likely we will have plenty of fair-weather days in September and into mid-October. Watch the extended forecasts and plan accordingly. We are only in a cool and somewhat damp pattern for a while, say the next week or 10 days. It is bound to change again.

Despite the past few days of highs in the 70s, Vancouver is still running about 5 degrees above average. The cool weather and showers today will linger over the Cascades, but freezing levels are still high enough that no snow will highlight the slopes other than perhaps the tippy top of Mount Hood.

Enjoy the brief freshet and I’ll update the outlook this weekend.