The cloudy, unchanging weather pattern we saw for the back half of January did not stick around for February, thanks to windy conditions that blew into the Pacific Northwest this week, moving that fog and low-lying clouds out of the area; for the most part. After a week-plus of gray and temperatures that didn’t move much, many are happy to see the sunshine. Marilyn Lohmann, meteorologist with the National Weather Service said the foggy conditions were particularly frustrating for the farming community. She noted that moisture felt in the air, did not make its way deep into area soils.

“It does seem to be dry and dusty across a lot of the area as we saw these winds kick up in these past couple of days.  So, if you’re not snow covered, those areas that are kind of open ground and dry are actually getting a crust on them, and it’s kind of an odd situation right now; as much as we don’t like that fog and low cloud, it does give us a lot of moisture there on the ground.”

The past couple of Februarys, the Pacific Northwest has seen a sizeable winter storm brining in rain, snow and cold temperatures. But Lohmann said it doesn’t look like at this point we’ll see that happen, as she’s expecting a progressive weather pattern in the days ahead.

“We will see High Pressure for a few days and then a storm system roll through, whether it produces a lot of precipitation in the valleys is kind of iffy right now, but it does look like we’ll continue to see some mountain snow.”

Lohmann noted while it’s not much, the region is seeing more daylight which will help warm up daytime temperatures as the month continues.




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