Heavy overcast with periods of rain. Moderate winds. Temperatures in the 40s.
After a dry start to February, today will more than double the total for the month. As I write this late in the evening, the weather observations are showing we’ve seen over 0.4″ at the airport today. Prior to today, only three days had more than a trace of precipitation. Yesterday was 0.21″ (which mostly fell overnight – or at least before I was up in the morning). We had one other day with 0.14″, though it also must have fallen overnight, since I didn’t experience any precipitation when I was out and about that day. One other day had 0.01″.
I enjoyed the sun, but it’s also nice to have the rain back.
I went for a drive around midday to run an errand. Conditions weren’t inspiring for doing much observation, though I did stop under the bridge and noticed three Surf Scoters not far out. I hadn’t seen any right around there recently, so found that interesting.
Despite the rain, I went out for a walk and talk later in the afternoon. Since heavy clouds and rain made for dim conditions, and my parents were already most of the way to their destination, I opted for a fast(ish) and light effort. I didn’t carry my backpack, big camera, or binoculars.
I felt like I was pushing a bit, but managed to make it to the view point in just under 21 minutes. It’s a 7 minute improvement over 3 weeks ago, and even a 2 minute (~10% improvement) over last week on the trip I wasn’t packing extra weight. However, on that trip the trail was snowy/icy and I was wearing microspikes. That was not the case today. The snow has melted off up as far as the first viewpoint. I saw a chunk or two of remaining ice tucked in a hollow, but that was all.
I made my obligatory photo of the view (not so expansive today), then spent a brief time looking at a rock face and documenting a moss and liverwort.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
