Vancouver Weather Blog

June was another wet and cool one though towards the end it really started to feel like summer, especially on 6/23 when we reached 80 degrees for the first time in 2010.  Now that it is July let’s hope summer is here to stay.

Values in parenthesis  are from 2009 for comparison.

High Temperature:  84.5  6/23  (89.5 in 2009)

Low Temperature:  43.7   6/5  (23.4 in 2009)

Mean Temperature:  59.0  (63.0 in 2009)

Rain:  3.48″  (0.76″ in 2009)

Wind Speed High:  19 mph  6/2  (32 mph in 2009)

Wind Speed Average:  1 mph  (1.4 mph in 2009)

Wind Speed Dominant Direction:  N  (N in 2009)

Wow, May was a wet one!   4.26″ to be exact.  My average (since 1999) is 2.25″ which means this month is almost double the average.  Contrast this year and 2005 (4.39″) with 2007 when I totaled only .81″.  May seems like it can be quite the fickle month when it comes to rain.  Here’s the statistics for this month:

Values in parenthesis  are from 2009 for comparison.

High Temperature:  78.7  5/14  (88.5 in 2009)

Low Temperature:  38.1   5/7  (38.3 in 2009)

Mean Temperature:  53.4  (57.8 in 2009)

Rain:  4.26″  (2.43″ in 2009)

Wind Speed High:  32mph  5/19  (33 mph in 2009)

Wind Speed Average:  2 mph  (2 mph in 2009)

Wind Speed Dominant Direction:  S  (N in 2009)

Here’s some statistics for April from my weather station.  Values in parenthesis  are from 2009 for comparison.

High Temperature:  73.3  4/18  (82.5 in 2009)

Low Temperature:  33.4   4/10  (30.1 in 2009)

Mean Temperature:  49.6  (50.2 in 2009)

Rain:  2.71″  (2.41″ in 2009)

Wind Speed High:  40 mph  4/5  (27 mph in 2009)

Wind Speed Average:  3 mph  (4 mph in 2009)

Wind Speed Dominant Direction:  S  (S in 2009)

April was definitely a spring month with temperatures all over the map and the usual showery conditions.   El Niño doesn’t seem to be keeping us much warmer or wetter at this point.  The past week though has been a seemingly never ending stream of showers and thunderstorms.  Looking at the forecast it doesn’t appear they will go away any time soon.  I’ve had to put of mowing the grass now for about a week and a half!

Here’s some statistics for March from my weather station.  Values in parenthesis  are from 2009 for comparison.

High Temperature:  69.9  3/24  (59.2 in 2009)

Low Temperature:  29.5   3/18  (25.3 in 2009)

Mean Temperature:  47.2  (43.1 in 2009)

Rain:  3.07″  (2.59″ in 2009)

Wind Speed High:  40 mph  3/29  (32 mph in 2009)

Wind Speed Average:  3 mph  (2.2 mph in 2009)

Wind Speed Dominant Direction:  S  (E in 2009)

March was in like a lamb and definitely out like a lion.  We had some spectacular days like 3/24 where it was nearly 70 but then some that weren’t so great like 3/29 when a 40 mph wind gust was recorded.  Very spring like weather, that’s for sure.

How about the storm we have going on right now?  Seems like one of the big blows we normally have in November or December doesn’t it?  So far (as of noon 3/29) I’m at .8″ of rain since this started yesterday and from what I read we’ve got a few more days of it.  On top of that my peak wind gust was 4o m.p.h. at 4:20 this morning setting my high for the year so far.

Usually our weather this time of the year is more showery so this seems a bit unusual.  Stay tuned to the weather forecasts over the next few days as it looks like the waves of rain could involve some thunderstorms.  Oh and stay dry if you can.

Today I installed a new computer to house the Vancouver Weather Observations weather software.  The previous computer was in service 24 X 7 from January 2002 until today which adds up to 8 years and a couple of months.  Not too shabby for a computer that was on constantly eh?  What prompted me to replace it is that it had started to develop some noises that made me think a fan or disk drive bearing was about to fail.  There were also other random issues which would make Virtual Weather Station stop updating the website.  After 8 years of faithful service it was time for replacement.

The new computer is a Dell Studio desktop running Windows 7.  Virtual Weather Station still reads the weather data and updates the website like before.  I considered changing software because at the time I planned this upgrade VWS was not yet Windows 7 compatible but Ambient came through with an update in the nick of time.  Ambient has been slow to add features and update this software so there may be a software change in the future.  For now though it is a reliable product that I’m familiar with so it will continue to be used.

I’m looking forward to having a quieter, more reliable computer to manage my weather hobby!

Here’s some statistics for February from my weather station.  Values in parenthesis  are from 2009 for comparison.

High Temperature:  58.6  2/18  (56.9 in 2009)

Low Temperature:  27.8   2/22  (26.1 in 2009)

Mean Temperature:  46.4  (40.4 in 2009)

Rain:  3.04″  (1.16″ in 2009)

Wind Speed High:  33 mph  2/18  (29 mph in 2009)

Wind Speed Average:  3 mph  (1.7 mph in 2009)

Wind Speed Dominant Direction:  E  (E in 2009)

February sure seemed mild with it feeling much like spring during the last couple of weeks.  The thing that stands out for me the most is the mean temperature which is much higher than last year.  This is probably why it feels so spring like!

Here’s some statistics for January from my weather station.  Values in parenthesis  are from 2009 for comparison

High Temperature:    57.9  1/19  (44.6 in 2009)

Low Temperature:    33.1   1/10  (32.5 in 2009)

Mean Temperature: 45.1  (37.8 in 2009)

Rain:  4.95″  (4.12″ in 2009)

Wind Speed High: 33 mph  1/18  (31 mph in 2009)

Wind Speed Average: 2 mph  (1.5 mph in 2009)

Wind Speed Dominant Direction: E  (S in 2009)

I guess you could summarize the month as much warmer, a bit wetter, and a bit windier than last year.

I guess you could say El Niño took it….

No snow at the Cascade Tunnel.  The orange markers on the left
are normally used by BNSF snow plow crews to locate the slide fence.

This weekend I visited Washington’s Steven’s Pass on a photography and railfanning adventure.  I heard there was little snow on the pass but was shocked to find there was none in locations where I was used to seeing a couple of feet.  In fact west of the summit there was not any snow below about 3000 ft. of elevation.   East of the summit where the temperatures tend to stay low longer the snow extended out to around Peshastin. 

In the several trips I made across the pass the lowest temperature I saw on my vehicle thermometer was 34 degrees!  Since I’m not a skier I’m not sure how that affects skiing but I’m sure the snow was melting and slushy based on what I saw elsewhere.  It did precipitate all weekend but it was primarily rain even at the 4000 ft. elevation at the summit.

So, what’s in store for us?  According to the Climate Prediction Center…

For the contiguous United States, potential El Niño impacts include above-average precipitation for the southern tier of the country, with below-average precipitation in the Pacific Northwest and in the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys.

From the website it looks like another El Niño update will be issued Thursday so I guess stay tuned for what the rest of the year will hold.

Normal snow at the Cascade Tunnel.  This is what it should be this time of year. 

How about the wind last night?  The combination of the wind and garbage day in my neighborhood wasn’t a good combination for me as all the noise of rattling garbage cans kept me up.  Peak wind gust 33 mph at 1:43 1/18/2009.