Temps easily reached the low 50s this afternoon and despite a week left in the month, January 2017 will go into the books as a top-15 warmest, perhaps even top 10. Good or bad, all things end and this warm stretch of weather is coming to and end as I type. A cold front is pushing the warmth out to sea and the result of this *moving process* has been clouds and off/on showers. OK, so you would think a cold front in January would mean a bitter blast of arctic air but in this case, the colder temps will just get us back to normal for this time of year. That means morning temps in the 20s and afternoon temps in the upper 30s. I think we can handle that. Heck, even tomorrow, the morning temps will be in the low 30s and afternoon highs still above normal, reaching the low 40s! It will be windy at times and that wind will add a bit of a chill to the air. The colder pattern is also quiet so plan on partly sunny skies through the weekend and into early next week. There are some signs at a few snow showers Wednesday of next week but dry until then.
Speaking of dry, the weekly drought update came out and it’s good…very good. let me show some graphics to show just how good things have been eroding the drought. first up is the drought monitor from last October:
Not good. Now…let me cue up our rainfall tally since that time & up through this morning:
Very good. Most cities & towns have had a surplus of rain (melted snow too) since last fall. Look what that has done to our drought:
Outstanding! For many cities & towns there has been a 2 category drop in classification–from extreme to moderate! The fact that the rain has been happening during the fall-winter is helped along by low evaporation rates this time of year and water usage at minimal levels. Let’s hope this keeps up for another 3-4 months!
~JR