Wintry Winter This Winter Be

This winter of 2016-17 has been in a nutshell, cold. Well relatively that is, I know folks in the North Dakota would be sweating like a hog in June with these temps we have. But this is not North Dakota, is it?

The annual average snowfall at my location over the past 16 seasons has been just about 8.5 inches; yet this winter season nearing the halfway mark, I have already measured 13.75 inches of fluffy white snow. And this is where the "cold" part is, that snow has stayed on the ground now for 22 of the last 45 days. Over my 16 winters at this location my average for the whole season is 14 days with at least a trace of snow on the ground. We are at 22 at the halfway mark. Of course it is entirely possible that no more snow will fall all year. If that happens this current snow will still lie here another 4-7 days before warmer temps and rain can wash it away.

In fact, this new year has yet to produce a temperature above 40 degrees. My year to date warmest high is a cool 37.9 degrees and every day this year has had overnight lows below the freezing mark, including 4 below 15 degrees. Average low so far has been a chilly 22 and the average high just 34 both marks WAY below my 16 year averages of 32 and 42 for the opening 2 weeks of January.

Cold snaps are a normal experience for any winter in this region, but extended periods of cold lasting more than a week are a bit uncommon. Of the 14 days that have passed this year, 4 of them refused to break the freezing barrier and those that did often did so for a only a couple hours or so. According to my hourly readings Starting January 1st at 12:00 AM and continuing till today, January 15th at 12:00 PM, 232 of 348 hours were below freezing. The mean daily temperature this year has been 28.4 degrees which is well below the typical daily mean of 37 this time of year.

The NWS in Portland seems to think that all of this cold air will washout with the series of Pacific storms that are approaching the coast now. They have made similar predictions on two occasions this season in which the cold air was more stubborn than they expected. So tomorrow night when the first of these disturbances move through, we shall see just how entrenched this cold air is. Meanwhile long term forecasts are suggesting more snow could be on the way for next weekend.

After the last two winters that only produced snow on one occasion each and with paltry accumulations, this season is delivering the goods as a wintry winter.

Happy New Year!

Holy cow 2016 is totally gone; it's been completely blown away! 2016 came in with snow and left with snow :) 2016 was otherwise a pretty blah year in weather locally. December was cool and dry with low precipitation numbers but above average in the frozen variety.

December 2016 ended a warmish year on a cold note. I did not set any snowfall records but I did have 12 days of measurable snow/sleet. I did not get anywhere near any cold temperature records, not even my own 15 year mark. But this past month was notably cooler than normal with overnight lows averaging 31.67 about two under and daytime highs averaging 39.85 about three under.

The warmest day was the lone 50 degree day with exactly 50 measured on the 3rd of the month. The coldest mark arrived on the morning of the 16th when the mercury bottomed out at 25.2 degrees. This insured that 2016 would be a full calendar year with nary a temp under 20 degrees. The warmest overnight low came on the morning of the 3rd which not coincidentally would become the warmest day. The chilliest afternoon high was 30.2 degrees on the 15th; one of only 4 days that failed to get above freezing. Overall 15 days failed to make the 40 degree mark.

A typical December at my location nets about 8 inches of precipitation with 2.66 inches of snow. Of course with an average snow total that low, a typical December is any where from no snow to a foot and half. I measured a paltry 2.6 inches of total precipitation but an unusually high amount of snow with 5.8 inches piling up over 12 days. This was not a contiguous event but rather a collection of light snow days with minor accumulations. Only three of the "snow" days offered anything more than scattered flurries. The deepest the snow ever got was a mere 1.5 inches.

The year in weather according to my station was a year of fairly average and lacked any real extremes, anywhere. In all fairness we did record a record amount of rainfall for the month of October when more than 9 inches landed in the bucket. But seriously, the coldest day in the calendar year of 2016 was a relatively warm, 23.5 degrees last January. The hottest day was a hot but nay triple digits, when 99.3 bubbled up in August one of 12 days above 90 degrees which is about normal for us. The rain bucket collected 47 inches and for my location that is close to average but a couple inches shy. I ended up with 140 days of sunny or mostly sunny skies, 158 days with at least .03 in the rain gauge, A near but slightly lower than average snow total of 7.8 inches. 2016 gave us just 35 days with a temperature below freezing which is a bit less than the typical 45 or so. As mentioned above there was not a single day in 2016 the dropped below the really cold mark of 20 degrees. There were only 22 days that couldn't breech the 40 degree mark and the coldest afternoon high was 29.5 degrees in January. I had 15 days with measurable frozen precipitation coming in the form of snow, sleet, and freezing rain. This was a bit more than average but most of it was last month and only 4 days produced any "real snow" in excess of an inch. August was the warmest month with an average high of 82.1 well above the "normal" mark of 79. The coldest month was December with an average high of 39.9. The wettest month was oddly enough, October with a mark on 9.15 inches; the snowiest was December's 5.8 inches. The driest month was August, with just 2 days of rain and a mere .26 inch landing in the can.

Looking forward we are expected to get another blast of arctic air from those ever so friendly Canadians up north. Temperatures this week are expected to drop into the teens over the whole metro area and outlying rural areas will likely see single digits overnight. Daytime highs may linger in the twenties for most of next week. The big question short term is what happens when that fat juicy system out in the Pacific makes landfall next Friday? The experts have been watching all the computer models. Some were showing a big snow event for late next week, but it seems the gang at the Portland office of the National Weather Service has backed off that notion, for now.

Happy New year and here in the Pacific Northwest, bundle up, then get out and soak it up my friends, soak it up!