Note: Over the next day or so you might see the website delayed in updates. It’s just some traffic on my home connection that will be over by the end of Monday or Tuesday night.

The models are showing us getting out of our rather chilly, foggy existence and into something a little more pleasant.

We will have showers and rain on and off through the week. Temperatures should stay above freezing at night and nearer 10 (as it was today) during the day as we remain under the influence of tropical moisture and air coming up from Hawaii.

As was mentioned in the Comments of the last post, there was a bunch of thundering activity on Saturday night all across the West Island. Always fun to get some of that in our area as it just isn’t very common.

It’s going to be a quiet time around here… to fill the time a bit, please consider reading this important, recent post on where we are at with Global Warming as the data from 2011 rolls in.

2011: Earth’s 11th warmest year; where is the climate headed?

The year 2011 tied with 1997 as the 11th warmest year since records began in 1880, NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center said last week. NASA rated 2011 as the 9th warmest on record. Land temperatures were the 8th warmest on record, and ocean temperatures, the 11th warmest. For the Arctic, which has warmed about twice as much as the rest of the planet, 2011 was the warmest year on record (between 64°N and 90°N latitude.) The year 2011 was also the 2nd wettest year over land on record, as evidenced by some of the unprecedented flooding Earth witnessed. The wettest year over land was the previous year, 2010.

We all know how cold 2011 felt around here, thanks in large part to La Nina. Notice our small, blue, part of the world was the exception…

The year 2011 was the warmest year on record when a La Niña event was present. Global temperatures were 0.12°C (0.2°F) cooler than the record warmest year for the planet (2010), and would very likely have been the warmest on record had an El Niño event been present instead.

Is Rome burning while we fiddle?

Starting early Saturday morning there is a threat for snow in Port Alberni and the other usual places.

Again like it has been all winter, how long it snows will depend on how long the cold sticks around in the Valley and the warm southerly winds stay away.

This storm doesn’t strike me as a really intense one, so I’m thinking if it starts at snow, its more likely to stay as snow through until Sunday. We could end up with 10cm or more.

After that, the models are consistently showing us into a warmer trend with highs up around the 5 or 6C mark. I’m hoping I am right that they are showing us in a southerly onshore flow for the next week which should keep the fog at bay and our temperatures consistent with the rest of the Island.

From my new favorite place for current weather imagery:

That whiplash should smack us with some moisture and then stay relatively nearby to transport some tropical warmth and rain into our region over the next week.