Among some fellow editors, focusing as much as we do on the weather has gained me a reputation as being old-fashioned. I think their position is that there’s nothing anyone can do about it, plus anybody can learn what they really need to on the radio, TV and the weather apps on our smart phones.

But to me and our north-county writer Jeff Clemens, our peculiar local weather is a source of endless fascination. It borders on entertainment here on the outer coast of the Pacific Northwest. Although I don’t ever like seeing people inconvenienced or property damaged by a storm, our occasional “wild ones” can be wonderfully dramatic. Even the dreary spring we’ve just endured seems noteworthy to me. Yes, I wish we had more warm, sunny days in April, May and early June. But I look around elsewhere in the country and think I’d ten times rather have the weather we do than suffer through 100-plus temperatures and years of drought.

At my small newspaper, I literally am the main weatherman, compiling the weekly report that appears on page A2 from data generously provided by the WSU Extension Service on Pioneer Road, Naselle Salmon Hatchery and Darrel Sotka out in Eden Valley. There’s a certain satisfaction in watching the temperature and rainfall patterns shift in cycles through the years, with late spring and early summer bringing a steady climb in daytime highs and a slow easing in our wet-season precipitation. Tracking these trends reminds me very much of my mother’s parents on their small farm, who noted things like the first spring strawberries and earliest fall frosts on their wall calendar.

Unlike some of our community papers, my colleagues at our company’s popular agricultural powerhouse, the Capital Press based in Salem, Oregon, spend as much as time as I do thinking about the weather. Reporter Don Jenkins often writes about subjects like our ongoing La Niña, which channels cool, wet systems over Washington state. We have a report from him in the June 22 Observer about the struggles state food producers are having this spring. I’ve added a supplement to it that’s specifically about the month of May in the ocean-facing maritime zone of the state. As a teaser, consider this example:

Our daytime highs were the third coolest in the historical record, with 1933 being the most recent year with chillier May days.

But it’s nothing to get depressed about — nice, warmer days are about to begin, according to the current forecast. If anything exciting changes in the meantime, we’ll be sure to let you know via weather alerts at www.chinookobserver.com and www.facebook.com/ChinookObserver.

If you don’t already subscribe, I sure wish you would. This community project depends on you.