Spring already?

The grass in my yard is growing, and I'm none too happy about it! It may only be the first few days of February, but it feels like spring is already here.

Just days ago, we closed out the warmest January on record, with daily average temperatures that were well above normal, running at 47 degrees for the month. This run of above average winter heat broke marks going back more than a century. Interestingly, while it was warmer, it was wetter as well, with about an inch more rain than average -- about 6" for the month at SeaTac rather than the typical 5".

Warmer, but rainier? Actually the two often go together in winter. If it's warm, we are often getting moderate to heavy rain, and not bright sunshine. By contrast, our clearest days in the winter are often very cold.

This past January was kind of an odd mix, with some very wet days, a bit of windy weather mid-month around the MLK holiday, and also some nice partly sunny, high clouds days that weren't necessarily stunning -- but were certainly a nice change from how gray winter can be.

Now, after the January warm up, we're into a pretty pleasant February. The only trouble is that this is the time of year that is critical to our mountain snow pack, which is vital for salmon, farmers and hydro power, such as PSE's Upper Baker dam in Skagit County (pictured here).

The good news is that we have until late March to catch up; the bad news is that with El Nino dominating our weather, history is against us as far as getting big late season snow fall.

In the meantime, skinny snow packs are another great reason to be energy efficient. Here are some easy ways to save energy -- and keep some water behind the dam for summer -- at PSE.com.

And will we get more snow? Keep the snow shovel handy, there's still a few weeks left before we can count Old Man Winter out for good.