Soggy June, Hello July

Yes we had a wetter than average June my friends and by a pretty soggy margin. I measured 3.63 inches of the drippy stuff compared to the more typical 2.47 inches in June. Full disclosure there were a few systems that came through and dropped large amounts of rain and other areas around the metro may have had more or less. But the sun was certainly not in abundance last month. June is not typically a sunny month anyhow. The curse of the Rose Festival Low tends to wreck half the month. This year it was more or less around all month long.

The temps were about spot on average for June with slightly warmer overnight values. These higher lows came largely due to an abundance of cloudy nights. The warmest day was a toasty 90.4° on the 23rd, the only time I saw a ninety in June, and only the second such mark all year. It was also a daily record high for the date. The coolest daytime high was a early spring like, 57.2° on the 5th. Overnight the warmest was 61.9° on the 23rd which led to that lone 90 plus later that day, and was one of 6 days with overnight lows in the 60s. The chilliest temp came on the 1st with a 49.3° reading one of two nights that couldn't stay above 50. June gave us 16 days with temps above 70° five of which were above 80° including the lone 90.

June managed to stay mostly cloudy with just 5 sunny days all month. 10 days featured rain the heaviest of which occurred on the 7th when 1.13 inches fell one of two days with more than 1/2 inch. There were 6 days with more than 1/4 inch of rain. Over all June was definitely a lot more spring than summer and that is typically the case with June.

July is starting off a bit like June ended, but even if we have a sub-par summer, July and August will have abundant sunshine and gorgeous warm days lie ahead.

So get out and soak it up my friends, soak it up.

April Warmer and Drier than Average

April is in the books and it was a couple of degrees warmer on both ends of the daily observations. I had a mere 1.81 inches of rain in the bucket, no snowfall, and frankly a nice April.

I am a bit nervous about the rainfall totals as we started off with a wet January but are now again trending down. I'm running at -6.34 inches for the calendar year thus far.

Temps were surprisingly flat for April which is a month that typically rides the spring roller coaster. There was one classic spring 'coaster' moment following the monthly high of the warmest day; a beautiful 75.1° on the 17th under lovely sunshine, the 18th had a high of just 53° at 22.1° plunge. The coolest daytime high was a chilly but not cold for April 47.2° on the first of the month. The coldest morning low arrived on the 13th with a cool 35.1°. Outlying areas saw frost. The warmest overnight low was a moderate 51.2° on the 29th. April gave us 20 days at 60° or better, 3 days failed to hit 50°, and we had 4 days at 70° or more.

The rain bucket wasn't busy last month with just 8 days of rain against 11 days of sunshine. Just 4 days saw a quarter inch or more rain. The wettest day was the 5th of April with a 1/2 inch of rain. I'm a bit nervous about the mountain snow pack. Silver Star Mountain (4364') has barely any snow at all and that suggests that mid-elevation snow is well below average.

That snow pack provides ample water through the dry season for both hydro-electric power generation as well as keeping it green through mid-summer. Green is good as it helps shorten the fire season and keeps things extra pretty during our glorious summer. Higher up int he mountain Timberline at 5900 feet is reporting 128" of snow pack which may seem like a lot but not really.

I posted the final snow fall report on the website here. Snowfall in May is highly unlikely so my official 2019-2020 snow season is well below average at 5 inches. That said mountain snow can and routinely does fall in May and even June so there is still hope to pad those pack numbers before summer.

Warm and Sopping Wet Start to a New Decade!

The real "news" about January 2020 as far as local weather was the rain. Yes, winter in the Northwest tends to be a bit drippy, but we outdid ourselves last month with a solid bucket of rain nearly 9 inches deep. But soggy conditions were not the only story. It was downright balmy at times with pineapple express conditions. I had a few personal record highs and even a couple of record warm low temps!

All of this sub-tropical warm and wet was even countered with a little bit of winter in the form of a couple of weak snow producing systems that passed through mid-month. What a weather month!

Keeping with my monthly reporting tradition I'll start with temps for January. Overall the month was relatively warm, seriously warm. The average overnight low was 6° above my established normal and daytime highs averaged nearly 4 above. The warmest daytime high temp arrived on the 31st when my merc hit 59.2°, other areas around the metro were above 60°. That was one of 11 days that managed to break into the 50's and one of 4 days to set local daily record highs last month. The warmest overnight low came on the 31st as well when the mercury barely dipped below 50 with a 49.8° mark that is a daily record warm minimum temp for me. It was one of 7, yes SEVEN daily record warm minimum temps last month! On the cold side of the equation there wasn't much to talk about and no daily record lows or record cold highs were even remotely challenged. The coldest morning came on the 15th with a 30.9° mark, yeah, above 30 degrees for the coldest temp in JANUARY! That was one of only 2 days below freezing all month long. This is also only the third time I have recorded a January with a coldest low above 30°. The coldest daytime high arrived on the 13th when the merc topped out at 37.9° and wintry mixed precip was about. I can't overstate this rather warm January. 17 days had low temps above 40°. This has been the warmest 'mean temp' January I have had dating to 2002. In fairness, when you see the precipitation results below you understand why that happened.   

Before I mention the precipitation totals, it should be noted that the wettest months of the year in this area are typically November and December. Those two months average at my house close to 8 inches each. January and February are wet, but typically average closer to 7 inches. January 2020 manages to put 8.94 inches in the bucket, not a record, but genuinely wet. January 2020 was my second wettest January dating to 2006 when I had 11.43 inches in the bucket and narrowly edging out January 2008 when 8.93 inches fell.

The incriminating factor was the fact that I measured precipitation on every single day in January. Officially I had 29 rainy days because I don't consider less than 0.04 inch of rain as "rainy." It is also notable that I did not record a single sunny day. Yes a few times the sun cracked through for a couple hours, but the whole month was all about those Northwest clouds and their innate ability to trap warm air at the surface. I measured 15 days with a 1/4 inch or more or rain, 4 days above a 1/2 inch and two of those were over one inch. The rest of the month was a seemingly relentless drip from above. The wettest day came on the 25th when I measured 1.25 inch of rain. Snowfall was below average for January but snowfall in this area is a bit fickle. I had 6 days with snow in the breeze but only two of those produced any sticking snow and both of those events were light and short lived. The most sticking snow I received was about 0.75 inch that lay on the ground on the 17th and was all but deceased by lunchtime. That whole period from about the 12th through the 17th was a "snow warning" that really never materialized below 500 feet of elevation and really was limited to high elevations above 1000 feet. I did receive a total of 1.29 inch of snow but of that only 1.25 inch stuck on the ground.

Looking ahead to this month we were rather toasty warm last night when at 12:01 AM my thermometer was at 59.2° following yesterdays high at 11:59 PM. The temp started falling overnight and continues falling to this moment where I now stand at 47.7°. The NWS seems to think that cold air will infiltrate our region over the next two days and snowflakes may start flying again tomorrow. We shall see. February is typically our transition away from wintry weather but it is no stranger to heavy snow and locals may recall that three of the last six Februaries brought significant snowfall and led all months those years in snow totals. For me at my station, February 2014 had 11.10 inches, February 2018 had 8.50 inches, and last February had 7.50 inches. You never know when it's gonna snow. If February passes without any snow, March is also no stranger to wintry weather, but I have only had one March that had a lot of snow and that was in 2012 when 7.85 inches fell. In short, it is still winter and very well may continue to be winter for the next 4-8 weeks. Only time will tell.

Soak it up my friends, soak it up.

A cool and wet September and a new Fall

Hello October! It really is Autumn now, seriously it's getting chilly. The Fall season of 2019 decided to make an early appearance this year with a wet and frankly cool September. Temps were well under average by day and due largely to extension cloud cover a bit above average by night. I don't know if this is a harbinger of what's to come this winter season but if it is, get your waterproof gear and some heavy sweaters it's gonna be nippy.

September was mild and daytime highs were well below the average with 69.85° against the 'normal' 73.63°. Overnight lows stayed a bit warm with several cloudy night trapping that warmer daytime air at the surface. The month averaged 54.77° overnight about 3 over. September managed to come and go without a single day in the 90s. The warmest day was the 5th with an 85.8° mark. Humidity was higher than typical and that really felt like a 90 plus day. That was also one of five days at or above 80° all of which occurred in the first half of the month. The latter half of September is generally the start of the 'Autumn slide' in temps and that was the case this year as well. The warmest overnight low came on the morning of the 1st with a rather balmy 64.6°.

But September wasn't about warmth this go round. In fact I had a few record cold temps for my locale. More than half the days failed to breech the 70° ceiling, two days failed to make 60° and the 29th topped out at a Thanksgiving-ish 49.6°. I had to go back and double check the daily log to make sure the station didn't go down in the afternoon for a few hours. It did not. The 29th had the coldest daytime high I have ever recorded in September, at this station dating to 2003. Earlier that morning recorded a daily low record of 43 but that was nowhere near a monthly record. I also had a daily record low on the last morning of the month with the chilliest day of the month at 35.4° still well off my all time monthly low of 34°. We had just six days of mostly sunshine and 15 days with rain.

After August was wetter than average yielding 1.58 inches of rain, September gave us October like numbers in the rain bucket with 4.07 inches. That is well above my 2.47 inch 17 year average for the month. We had a few squalls that produce thunder, lightning and hail along with some drenching rainfall. 1.01 inches fell on the 8th. We had six days produce a 1/4 inch or more. On the 28th a late afternoon thunderstorm produced a rapid 1/2 inch of rain and dumped nearly an inch of hail that stayed on the ground for half an hour. If this past month is a herald, holy cow things are going to get wild!

October may bring us some nice weather for a few days of Indian Summer, but I wouldn't count on it. The latest I have ever recorded an 80° high was October 16th and the 17th is the latest I have ever recorded a 75° high. The NWS is calling for a few nice days in the upper 60s and some sunshine, but also several days of rain. If we get to mid October without any summerish weather, that's all she wrote.

Get out and soak it up my friends, soak it up.

First Month of Year rather dull

Welcome to 2019! The first month of the year came in about 1-3 up over "normal" on both ends of the day. I had no real snow just a flurry or two on the 6th. Snowfall has been at a severe premium this season.Precipitation in general has been running well below established norms. 

This opening month to 2019 was pretty uneventful. No deep freeze, no major run dump, no snow other than a little flurry, no record breaking warmth, nothing really. Just 11 days with morning lows below freezing, but everyday managed to get above freezing. The mercury just stayed between 27° and 56° all month.

January 2019 saw the coldest temperature at a modest 27.3° on the morning of New Year's Day, one of those aforementioned 11 sub freezing mornings. Every single day last month managed to bust up over 40° with the chilliest daytime high a 40.6° mark that came on the 26th. On the warmer side of the spectrum we managed to see 11 days with the mercury topping out above 50° the warmest of which was a toasty 56.1° on the 23rd. Not a single night stayed above 50° the warmest overnight low was the 47.3° that occurred on the 23rd, not surprisingly the same day as the warmest high. January gave us 14 days with sunshine and just 10 days with rain, and technically one day with snow, but it was just a flurry and nothing stuck.

Precipitation was dry, again. We really need some rainfall and snow pack this year, holy cow. There were only 5 days last month that managed to spill more than a 1/4 inch of rain and the most came on the 18th with 0.65 inch. The 6th had a light and brief snow flurry I unofficially estimated at a 0.10 inch equivalent. Just 2.53 inches in the rain bucket which is less than half my 17 year average for January.

It is weird looking up at Silver Star in January and seeing such a light spattering of snow. This weekend starting on Super Bowl Sunday things might just whiten up a bit all the way down to the valley floors. If not to the valley, certainly below 1000 feet and that means the foothills will look proper again for this time of year. Ski resorts in the Cascades will certainly welcome more snowfall it has been dismal this season thus far.

The local weather prognosticators don't seem to know how big a shot we will get of colder arctic air. Most of the computer models seem to suggest it will be a mild shot thus the iffy stance on valley snow. One thing for sure is that we should see significant accumulations up higher in the 1000 foot plus areas. Right now it is raining and snow levels are pretty high like 5000 feet! Those levels will plunge as the weekend progresses. So it seems that winter may arrive late this year, we shall see.

Whatever the weather soak it up my friends, soak it up.

Last Month of the Year! Happy Holidays.

Well that was a rather uneventful November. November is typically one of two very wet months in the Southwest Washington and Northwest Oregon climate, yet this year November was a little on the dry side. November is usually the month I record my first hard freeze, and that did happen, despite the overall warmer than average temps.


The 11th month yielded a few notable events. The warmest day was the very first day of the month when the merc shot up to 64.9°. Both the first and second days of November were the warmest temps on those days, I have recorded at this location, however the all time records were not in jeopardy.  The warmest overnight low of a balmy 55.9°, arrived on the morning of the 1st and likely contributed to that day being the warmest of month.

On the cold side of the thermometer, the chilliest temps was a 28.2° morning on the 11th, not cold enough to beat my daily low record but the 29.5° morning on the 19th did set my local daily low record. The coolest afternoon high was a 44.6° day on the 12th hardly any threat to a record there.

Overall last month delivered 5 subfreezing mornings, 14 mornings under 40°, 12 days above 50°, 10 days with sunshine, 9 rainy days, and no snow or ice aside from a few brief flakes mixing in with rain.

Now that rain was mentioned, only 3.2 inches landed in the bucket less than half my typical 7.98 inches. The soggiest day came on the 22nd when 2/3 of an inch fell one of only three days above 1/2 inch and six days at 1/4 inch or more.

Is this a precursor of the rainy season to come? Who knows? The science guys are still trying to determine if El Niño will settle in at all and if so how strong. El Niño tends to send a sizable chunk of our rain further south towards Northern California, good for them, not so much for us. These weather years can still bring cold winter weather down tot he valley floors but in general temps are a bit warmer than average under these conditions. Only time will tell for sure, but this wet season has started out a little dry.

December is here and with it the question about holiday snow. Here at my low elevation of just 267 feet, I have had just two Christmas Snow events with an inch or more of snow on the ground on Christmas Day. December 24th-25th, 2008 I had 2.25 and 2.0 inches of fresh snow respectively landing on top of a foot that was already on the ground. Then last Christmas out of nowhere came a dusting of 2 inches on Christmas Eve, followed by a few more flakes on Christmas Day. Ho, Ho, Ho, Christmas snow!

Odds are of course that it will be a green Christmas since snow events are not real common to begin with and then asking to have them randomly occur on Christmas is bit much to expect. Above 1000 feet the odds improve significantly and at 2000 feet it's almost a given.

May you holidays be filled with joy... and whether your Christmas be white or green, frosty or wet, be sure to soak it up, my friends, soak it up.

November Hath Arrived!

The Autumn plunge is in full effect as temperatures shall continue the rapid descent towards winter. October had a mid-month touch of Indian summer, a rarity in these parts. The trees however tell the tale of Autumn and as those brilliantly colored leaves are now beginning to pile up all over the place. Temps will plunge further and struggle harder to breach the 60 mark and later next month the 50 mark will become a challenge. So it is with the fall.

That touch of Indian Summer I mentioned led to a personal daily record on the 16th. A late 80° mark and likely the last such temp until mid spring. That is the latest date I have recorded an eighty degree temp at this station. That was the only temp to breech the octo-range but several mid-month days were crisp and clear with lovely 70s.

The warmest day for October 2018 was that aforementioned 80.2° on the 16th and the warmest overnight low was the 1st when it dropped to a summerish 55.8°. The coldest temperature I recorded was 36.3° on the morning of the 15th. The chilliest daytime high came on the 5th at just 51.6° under rainy conditions. October gave us five days with highs at 70° or better including that lone eighty. 21 days busted out over 60°. October failed to deliver our first freeze which is not unusual, but it did manage a frost on the morning of the 15th. 8 overnight lows ended up under 40°.

Our average overnight low was actually a tad chillier than my station 'normal' but daytime highs were nearly 3° warmer than my 'normal'. That can be attributed to the mid month sunny stretch. Rainfall was the real tendency breaker. I only managed to get 2.52 inches in the bucket, well short of my "average" 4.15 inches. The soggiest day came on the 27th when 0.56 inches fell which was one of just five days at or above 0.25 inches. October is a transition month between the dry summer and the wet fall/winter/spring. November is here and it should be wetter and colder from here on out.

Generally November is one of the two wettest months of the year. My "normal" for November is 7.98 inches just a tad less than my "normal" of 8.05 inches in December. In a typical winter pattern NW Oregon and SW Washington get the brunt of the systems coming in off the Pacific, as the winter settles in, often the jet stream takes a southerly dip sending some of the storms a little further south into Northern California. I'd love to see above average rain over these next two months since we are a very dry 17.87 inches year to date. Of course water years round these parts are are measured from October 1 through September 30. But none-the-less I'd like to see some moisture to end out the year. Even if I have average rain over the next two months, I'll end up with a sub-par year.

This year climatologists think El Niño conditions are building in the tropical Pacific. This means warmer ocean surface temps and often a stronger but more southerly storm track. If that holds up then Northern California may pick up a chunk of "our" rain. The southerly jet can sometimes leave an opening for incursions of Arctic air into our region.

If El Niño settles in, I think we end up with at least one significant arctic event over the winter. The last two winters have had above average snowfall, I'd say the odds are we under perform this year. So here we go, the snow season begins, November is not really much of a snow maker, we shall see what happens as the darkness descends over the lands north of the 45th parallel.

Soak it up my friends, soak it up.



   

Welcome to October!

September is in the books and she was a bit on the cool side yet a little dry as well. Despite having 7 days with measurable precipitation, the rain gauge only collected a smidgen over an inch. I did manage to record one temp in the nineties to boost the YTD total to 18 tied for the most since I started records here in 2002. There is a 99.9% chance that 2018 will pass without a triple digit high temp as September's best was a mere 90.7° The month was notably cooler than my "normal" driven by a 2° under for the overnight lows. It seemed wetter than it was as the rain that fell was short and light for the most part. Despite a week of cloudy weather, I still managed to have 20 days with sunshine.

The thermometer stayed above 40 degrees for the entire month and I measure 6 days at or above 80° Every single day in September of 2018 managed to get above 60° as well. The warmest temp was the 90.7° on the 5th, the warmest overnight temp was a warm 59° on the 8th. The coolest mark came on the morning of the 24th with a crisp 42.1°. The chilliest afternoon was the 29th when the merc had to stop at 63.7°

Rainfall was 1.04 inches, well below my typical 2.47 inches. The bulk of it coming on two consecutive days of 0.31 and 0.35 inches the 11th and 12th. Those were the only days that managed to produce more then a quarter inch. Snow levels did come down during the rainy spell that added the first fresh layer of snow to Mount St. Helens, but the warm weather last week melted it right back off.

So now we are fully engaged with autumn and we begin our frost and freeze watch. When will it frost and when will it freeze? The trees are getting ready to put on the annual fall color show and that is always a delight. I typically get the first sub freezing low in the month of October, but there have been several Octobers that did not produce a freezing temp. A frost is inevitable in October. October is also capable of producing temps in the 90s but it is rather rare, in fact even 80s are an oddity for the Harvest Month. 

October is a beautiful month weather she be cold or warm so get out and soak it up my friends, soak it up.

Hello June, how about some rain?

June the last month of spring and the herald of summer. It's here, it's live, it's right now. But the elephant in the room cannot be ignored. My rain bucket and every other rain gauge in the Portland Metro Area was bone dry last month. It was dry even by JULY standards! I measured a sparse 0.12 inches of precipitation all in scattered shower form. My 16 year average for May is 3.25 inches. Holy Arizona Batman, we're turning into a desert! Well this is the driest May in some 80 years. But the real story isn't just the anomalous May, but this whole year is well under average precipitation. Since the start of the year, I have accumulated 12.62 inches of precipitation including the water content of nearly 9 inches of snowfall. That is on HALF of the established normal for the first five months of the year. I am actually hoping for a soggy June. I didn't want to say the "D" word yet, but if June doesn't produce some above average rainfall, drought isn't far off.

I had 22 sunny or mostly sunny days, just ONE day with any "real" rain, the 10th had 0.07 inches, light showers at worst. We really need some rain my friends, and that is not something we generally have to ask for in these parts.

So was May filled with warm and hot days to compliment the desert dry conditions? Well... not really. There was the warmest day of the year thus far on May 14th when the merc popped out an 87.1° which was one of four 80 plus days. Nary a 90 in sight however. Both the average low and high temp came in about 3 degrees warmer than my 16 year average for May at 50.75° and 71.61° respectively. That is "warm" but there was no major heatwave or extended period of super warm temps. Other than the lack of water falling from the sky and the generally sunny conditions, this was a typical May with some cool days, some average days, and a few really warm days. I think the 3 degree pop was likely due to the outrageous amount of solar warming we got. May is typically a cloudy month with a couple of sunny days, this last month was Southern California sunny. It isn't much of a stretch to say that sunny days tend to warm up more than cloudy ones in late spring.

The warmest overnight low came in on the 24th with a July like low of 57° and the chilliest afternoon was May Day with a nippy 57.9° high. There was really only one morning that was genuinely chilly for late spring, May 2nd barely stayed out of the 30s with a 40.1° low reading. The last 30 days of the month all had no problem getting into the 60s. Nearly half of the month managed to stay above 50° all day and night.

So the outlook for June and Portland's Rose Festival seems to look good with mostly warm and dry conditions. I wouldn't count out a soaking rain sometime in June. We have a reputation to uphold here, and we need to temper the flow of Californians moving to region with some 'disturbing' late spring rainfall ;)





 

Happy New Year!

Another year bites the dust and a new one begins. We had a relatively quiet end to the year but December was not without a surprise or two locally.

The biggest surprise was the White Christmas that most weather pros didn't see coming. The best the official prognosticators had was ice and sleet quickly turning to rain on Christmas eve. What we got in Portland and north was almost all snow and about 1-4 inches depending locale. I got a little over 2 inches at my house. The weather guys doubled down on warmer weather and mother nature kicked them in crotch with chillier than expected temps for a few days past Christmas which left the white stuff on the ground until warmer weather came on Thursday the 28th.

December had no real craziness however. No epic rain event, no heat wave and no deep freeze. The month was bone dry (for us at least) with just shy of three inches in the rain bucket against a typical eight inches. The Cascade snow pack is a bit thin this year and December is an important snow-packing month that really failed to deliver. 

Warmest temp came on the 6th when it was a nice fall-like 57.6° the balmiest overnight temp came on the 29th when the merc stayed toasty at 47.1° under a pounding rain. The coldest morning was the 11th with a mark of 22.6° chilly but nowhere near any kind of significant cold. The chilliest daytime high came on the 24th when we failed to get above freezing with a 31.1° which led off a string of three days with low 30s for highs. Again nothing really cold, but chilly none-the-less.

Rainfall was weak sauce for December with 2.96 inches falling into the bucket and the soggiest day was a modest soaking of 0.59 inches on the  29th one of only two days with a half inch of rain or more.

2017 ended with 42.14 inches of rain the most falling in February with 9.41 inches. 10.7 inches of snow for the calendar year. The wettest day having 1.61 inches rain and snowiest day brought 5 inches. The coldest temp of 2017 was 13.3° the chilliest daytime high was 28°. The warmest temp was 103.6° and the warmest night was 67.3°. The year saw an average daily high of 61.26° and an average daily low of 43.78°. We had 54 days with a 1/4 inch or more of rain and 15 days with snow, sleet, or ice. We had 7 afternoons that failed to get above freezing and six days with temps below 20°. I recorded 14 days at or above 90° and three days in triple digits. 51 mornings fell below freezing, 167 days managed to bust out above 60°. 145 days were sunny or partly sunny and 128 days saw some rain or showers. 

December 24th, 2017

Overall 2017 was a pretty average year. It was the fourth coldest year for mean temp. A notable was the appearance of snow for Christmas. I have only measured snow on the 24th or 25th four times in the 17 years of record keeping at this location. Christmas Day 2007 I had flurries which briefly accumulated to maybe a half inch but melted within a couple hours. Christmas 2008 was the epic monster White Christmas with the 24th getting 2.25 inches followed by another 2 inches on Christmas Day this all on top on more than foot on the ground prior. Christmas Eve 2016 had some flurries and sleet that briefly stuck but it was barely measurable. Christmas eve 2017 with a nice 2 inches of snow that stuck around for few days.

New Year's Day was gorgeous with a crisp morning and brilliant sunshine all day long. Hello 2018 and Happy New Year to all.

The Autumn Wind is Coming...

Sounds like an old NFL Films intro for the Oakland Raiders. However this is a a weather blog, not a sports column so that title is more fact than fiction. It is autumn and the cool winds are coming.

September is in the books and it was a tad warmer than my local 16 year average. We saw the average daily high at 75.29° about a degree warmer than normal and the average low came in at 53.22° nearly two above. The warmest day was the 2nd with 94.8° which was one of three days above ninety all in a row to lead off the month. The chilliest temp came on the night of the 24th with a chilly but not cold 43.3°

We had a very toasty overnight low of 67.3° on the morning of the 5th which was one of 5 nights in a row that failed to dip under 60 degrees. September 20th managed on 57.7 degrees for the high one of two days that could get to 60 degrees.

The water story was pretty much an average affair with the bucket picking up 2.23 inches against a typical September normal of 2.47 inches. 16 days saw mostly sunny skies and just 6 days had precipitation that exceeded 0.03 inches. We had a solid soaker on the 19th when 1.4 inches fell one of only two days with more than a 1/4 inch of rain.

Looking ahead to October it seems like cooler than average is on the horizon for the first part of the month. Autumn is here and with it rapid changes in temperature is assured. By the end of the month we will struggle to get to the mid-50s. Cool and crisp weather with gusty breezes await us as the trees turn bright and the holidays approach.

Soak it up my friends, soak it up.

June is Gone and Summer has Arrived!

The first official day of summer has come and gone and so has the month of June. Here in the Northwest June is tends to be a spring month, not a summer month. June did bring with it some very summery weather including the hottest day I have recorded since the all time record high was set back in July of 2009. That was also the first triple digit heat I have recorded in nearly two years, the last time was, July 30th, 2015.

After a cooler than average trend that began in December last year and continued through last month, June emerged a tad warmer than average and a touch on the dry side as well.

June produced two days in excess of 90° at my location including that scorcher on the 25th when the mercury when stratospheric at 103.6°. That toasty warm daytime high was helped by a relatively warm overnight low of 63.1°. That was the warmest overnight low of the year. Despite the blistering heat mark set last month June was not without its chilly moments. True to form, the late spring weather did produce four nights in the 40s including the chilliest night on the 5th when the bottom came at 43°. The coldest daytime high arrived on the 12th when I failed to reach 60° for the first of two sub 60s in a row. The 12th was 58.1° followed by a crisp 59.4° on the 13th. June gave us 17 days above 70°, seven of which busted out over 80°, two days above 90°, and the aforementioned single day above 100°.

Rainfall came in light of my 16 year "normal" but well within typical June fluctuations. The bucket caught 1.46 inches of rain. June had some scattered thunderstorm activity that probably pushed nearby stations well above 2 inches, but my station seemed to avoid those downpours this time 'round. The soggiest day came on the 15th when I saw 0.51 inches and that was one of just two days where I recorded more than 1/4 inch.

The ever so fickle, Miss Spring was in control of June with bouts of both chilly and hot weather. We enjoyed a delicious 16 days of sunshine against just 8 days of rain, most of which was drizzly in nature. Heading into July it looks like we will have rather typical summer weather for the next several days. The NWS in Portland has this forecast this morning.



The metro Portland-Vancouver region enjoys some of the best summer weather on this planet. Temps don't like to get above ninety much and triple digits are worthy of front page headlines. We simply bask in mildly warm, mostly sunny days for the next 75 days or so.

Summer has arrived so soak it up my friends, soak it up.

Spring is Here, More or Less

The month of March has marched into the the nether. It was pretty typical of March with slightly warmer nights and slightly cooler days. It was well above average for rainfall, a bit light on snow and well shy of expectations regarding sunshine. Seriously the great yellow orb was conspicuous by its absence.

I listed 5 days as sunny but I am pretty generous with what counts as "sunny". I figure that it is sunny enough if 6 hours of the day basks in the golden rays of El Sol. This was one gray march and it spit rain nearly every day. In fact I measured at least a touch of rain on 23 days with 19 having my standard .03 inches as a minimum "rainy day".  

What is really a bit odd about this March was that just ONE day managed to top out above 60 degrees. ONE! That is truly unusual for March. March is a month than can show a wide range of temperatures and usually does. I generally receive the first 70 degree day of the year sometime in March. If you check back to November 1st edition of this blog, you will see that October posted NO 70s and that is usually the last month with such a mark. As it stands now the last 70 degree day was September 28th when the merc busted out a 72.3° Holy Long and Cool, Batman, that's over SIX months with nary a 70 in sight! SIX MONTHS! Half a year! For the record, Chicago had a day that broke 80° last month. Oh and by the way, the last time I had the whole month of March blow by without reaching 70° was March of 2011. Oh wait, there's more... this is a streak of sub-70s that is now the longest I have seen since keeping records here dating to 2002. I stand at 185 days since the last 70° reading. Today is highly unlikely to bust a 70 since it's 1:30 pm right now at I just hit 50 under clouds and showers. The streak continues.

March 2017 had an average daily high of 52.91° down when measured against my "normal" of 54.68°. The average daily low came in at 40.65° up from the typical average of 38.45°. Warmest day a sunny and 60.4° on the 10th. The balmiest overnight temp occurred on the 14th under cloud cover with a 48.2° mark. The chilliest temperature I got at my station was the morning of the 19th when it was 30° under clear skies. The coolest daytime mark for March came on the 6th when the day started with a dusting of snow and then washed out with rain and a high of 43°. So March ended up with just one subfreezing temp and 19 mornings chillier than 40°. Eight days managed to get above 50° and just the one aforementioned sixty plus. March 2017 was really steady on temps all month as opposed to the more common 'battle of the seasons' where there is a cold snap and a heat wave in the same month. This was truly a bland March and it felt much 'cooler' than it was since we were not rewarded with that first warm day of the year.

On the water side of the weather we seem pretty good this season. I added another 7.32 inches in the bucket against a 'normal' of 5.52 inches. This on the heels of a soggy February that yielded 9.41 inches. There was no big storm event that pushed the rain totals up. It was a couple of wet systems and an incessant drip all month long that aided the overflowing rain pail. The only snow was that tiny little dusting of .25 inches that stayed on the ground all of a couple hours before being washed down the drain under a more typical March shower of rain. 23 days of drip and a few days of heavy downpours added up to a soggy and gray March.

April is starting out much like March with showers and relatively cool temps. Here's an April First show out the window. There is that plum tree finally flowered about a month late. There's that wet street we have seen nearly every day since January when it was a snowy street.

This is no fool my friends, Miss Spring is still in Cancun, I think she missed her flight. Come on girl, were ready for some 70s. Seriously, were ready.

 

Winter Weather will transition to Classic Rain

Rain is washing snow away 10:00 am

Starting all the way back on December 4th when I got the first snowflakes of the season with a series of light flurries to this morning where another 3/4 inch of snow and then ice was deposited on my yard, I have accumulated just over 5 inches of winter precipitation and that is well above my 15 year average of 2.7 inches in December.

The first system brought an inch of wet snow that stayed on the ground for the afternoon but was gone my early evening. The second bout of snow brought me 2 inches of fluffy white snow and howling winds that blew the snow all over until it came to rest on the east side of some immovable barrier like a house or fence. That system had entrenched cold air that kept us chilly and left the snow on the ground for 4 days. Then another blast of arctic air mixed with moisture from the south made way north. The southern half of the metro area got upwards of 5 inches where I got about an inch and a half here in the north. The remnants of that snow and the fresh layer from this morning remain on the ground here on day six but it will be gone by the end of the day. I got 34 degrees showing and it is steady snow eating rain that is falling from the sky.

We are expected to see some locally heavy rain later in the week possibly 2-3 inches and snow levels will rise up above pass levels for a bit before returning to a more typical 2000-3000 feet.  But what of Christmas now just six days on the horizon? Right now the NWS in Portland has us forecast for a cool 38 on Christmas Day the low Christmas morning should be just a tad above freezing. This far out, who knows, a little shift in the atmosphere could drop us back into the snow zone. Statistics do not favor this however.

Let's sit back and soak it all up my friends, soak it up. Ho Ho Ho... Merry Christmas be it white or green :)

Soggy October

What a month! We just closed the books on the soggiest month of the year. October 2016 produced a whopping 9.15 inches of rain which is more than DOUBLE the average over my 15 years of reporting here. Is this what La Niña has in store for us this year? I wrote about the upcoming La Niña predictions on my blog, The 'Couv' Life, here.

It is not often that October is a rain leader. Sure the season starts to change in October but God doesn't usually open main line faucet until November.

I had 26 days with rain and only one day I could really call "sunny". All the cloud cover worked to create a month with warmer than average overnight lows and cooler than average daytime highs. There was nary a 70 degree mark in the month of October and in fact the warmest day I recorded at my station was a 66.7 on the 12th.

Temperature wise, October had only one low in the thirties and it was a 37 measured on the morning of the 12th. 19 days this past month saw overnight lows above 50 degrees! The warmest overnight low came on the 8th when the mercury bottomed out at a summer-like 54.7 degrees. The warmest afternoon was the aforementioned 66.7 on the 12th and the coolest afternoon high was a seasonably cool 53.6 degrees yesterday. The observed averages were nearly 3 degrees warmer overnight but nearly two degrees cooler by day. October's observed averages came in at 48.59 low and 59.56 high.

On the water side of the weather, we had a very wet month indeed. I mentioned at the start over 9 inches of precipitation fell all in the form of rain except in the mountains. We had one monster rain storm that came in on the 13th a dumped a monsoonal 2.21 inches on my rain gauge. That is the type of day that can skew the average for the whole month. Let it be known however, that really isn't the case this time. If I remove that day the month would still have nearly 7 inches and would still be close to 50% higher than average rainfall for October. Seriously guys, it rained 26 days last month! I only had two days in which there was zero rain. There were three days with less than .04 which really isn't "rain". There was 11 days with at least a 1/4 inch of rain. This was a cloudy, soggy, and all round rainy October.

Mount Hood Meadows Webcam shot, last week.

Is this a prelude to a monster wet season? Will I get five feet of rain this winter? Could happen? There's already nearly a foot in the bucket this season!

How about the snow and ski season? La Niña tends to favor the snow in the mountains. You can see that snow is accumulating up on Mount Hood already and the start of the winter ski season may come before Thanksgiving if this precipitation trend continues.

We sure could use a big thick snow pack this year. The cooler pacific ocean temperature could bring us a banner water year by packing the mountains with 80 feet of snow! Let's hope so!

Soak it up my friends, soak it up!

Cool July, Nice, Very Nice!

'Nice' is an apt description for the month of July we just enjoyed. Sure there was that one week that was cloudy and even a bit showery, but the rainfall stats were still slightly lower than my 15 year normal. Temps were about 3 degrees cooler than my normal as well. After the last couple of blazing hot summers, I'll take a cooler more typical summer and love it.

The stats played out typical across the board and there were few extremes this past month. The average observed daily high was 76.67 about three shy of the typical 79.71. the average observed overnight low was a very typical 55.35 against a normal of 56.18.

The warmest temperature I recorded was 91.8 degrees on the 28th one of just two days above 90 degrees last month the other a 90.9 mark on the 29th. The coolest temperature was a fairly nippy for July 46.2 the morning of the 14th. That was one of two sub 50 marks in July. The chilliest daytime high came on the 4th of July of all days when I was stuck at 65.3 degrees. Fortunately for all the Independence Day crazies here in the 'Couv' it was a mostly clear day and night. The warmest overnight low arrived on the 21st following a nice 84.9 degrees earlier with 63.7.

The rain bucket got five days of action but only two with any real rain the 7th and 8th with 0.15 and 0.38 inches respectively. The whole month had a fairly typical but less than average 0.70 inches measured against 1.02 as "normal".

That was just a fantastic month. My son Kyle, is in the Army and is stationed at Fort Polk, LA. He will be coming out for a visit next week and believe me he will love our cool weather even if we end up having a heat wave. He has endured routine daily highs in the upper 90s with humidity pushing the heat index well above 120 degrees! Yuck!

So with that in mind get outside and soak it up my friends; soak it up!

June was so very 'June-Like' this year.

Another month passes to the archives and this was a fairly typical June here in the Greater Portland-Vancouver region. Temps ran ever-so-slightly above average has seems to be the trend lately. With the exception of one heat wave early in the month and one bout with some heavy rain this was a very pleasant month.

The heat wave came on back to back days where I recorded identical daily highs of 95.7 degrees. Some stations in the area reported triple digits on one or both of those two days. Depending on your definition of "heat" the warm spell lasted from June 3rd through the 7th with mid to upper eighties on the other three days. 95.7 was the monthly high. For the rest of June after this warm spell, there was just three more 80 degree marks the rest of the month. The coolest temperature I recorded was a crisp 42.6 the morning of the 19th. The coolest afternoon came on the 14th when the mercury failed to reach 60 topping out at just 58.8 degrees. The warmest overnight low came on the 5th when it only cooled down to 63.1 degrees and that came off the previous days scorching 95.7 high.

Overall June produced a mere 2 days over 90 degrees for me and a total of 8 days in the eighties or higher. 11 days failed to hit 70 degrees. The temps at both ends of the day averaged about 2 degrees warmer than my 15 year establish "normals".

On the waterfront, I recorded 1.77 inches of rain well below my "normal' mark of 2.47 in June. The wettest day was 0.66 inches on the 23rd and there were 8 days with measurable rain including 2 with more than a quarter inch in the bucket.

We had some thunderstorms, a little hail and some amazing warm sunny days. It was in a word: June.

July and August are the only two "dry months" in this area and these are also the "hot" months. So far July is pretty mild as I am sitting at a San Diego Beach, comfy 73.6 degrees under mostly sunny skies. Me likes ;)

April Roller Coaster

The month of April has moved to the history file and what a roller coaster ride it was. We had a sub-par rain month and fairly average daytime highs save for two monster spikes into the hot, even for July, category.

May will start out with a nice summer-like warm day into the 80s. The week begins with some July love but quickly will turn back to spring showers and some minor t-boomers later in the week.

As for April how about those heat waves. Seriously, a heat wave in April is not unusual but notable, but two heat waves in April, WOW! Daily records were falling like autumn leaves this past month.

The high for the month came on the 18th with a personal all time April mark of 91.6 and that appears to have been the all time April mark for the 'Couv' dating back to the 19th century! That was the only 90 plus mark for the month, of course. That 91.6 came second in a series of four consecutive days above 80 degrees. That was second group of 80 plus days the first group a back to back pair on the 7th and 8th with a near 90 mark of 88.7 on the 7th. 2016 begins rather ominously as last year was a record for 90 plus days in many Greater Portland Metro communities. I had 18 90 'plussers' last year about double my local average. The first of those 18 came in June and this year I have one logged already in April. Oh boy. The warmest overnight low did not follow the hot 91.6 day, but came on the morning of the 20th with a mark of 50.9 degrees.

On the chilly side of the month there isn't much to report. In fact not a single morning was below the ice making mark. The coolest came on the morning of the 16th with a chilly but not at all uncommon 36.3 degrees one of just four mornings that managed to chill into the 30s. Every single day in the month of April was able to warm above the 50 degree comfort mark with the chilliest afternoon the 14th hitting 51.6 degrees.

Overall April 2016 was much warmer than average. the observed average low was a hefty 3.5 degrees above my established norms and the observed highs were a crazy 7 degrees warmer than average thanks to not one, but two heat waves.

Rainfall was well under normal for me with a dry 2.21 inches in the bucket against my more typical 4.24 inches. We had a few days with thunderstorms and some localized heavy rain was present. That should create wide variances in rainfall totals at local weather stations. The rain for the year has been solid with a four month start of 20.58 inches and a season to date (Oct, 2015 to date) of a dripping wet 49.66 inches. Holy soggy soil Batman, that's a whole bunch of water!

There is a heavy layer of snow on the high Cascade peaks but very little remains on the local foothills. In fact there is just one tiny little patch clinging to life on the very tip of Silver Star (4364 ft). There is a good chance that won't survive the next two days. As for late season skiing? It should be solid, Timberline lodge is reporting a May 1st base at the lodge (6000 ft) of 121 inches. Up higher the last Snow Cat data about a month ago reported over 67 FEET of snow depth at Bean's Run (7326 feet).

Let's all shout out a welcome to the merry month of May. There is a high probability that freezing weather is firmly planted in the rear view mirror and that warmer days lie ahead. May is almost as fickle as March and April so we likely won't finish this month without some noteworthy weather bumps, but the gorgeous days of summer now await on the near horizon.

January: a tale of Jekyll and Hyde

This glorious new year started off much like its predecessor ended; it was a bit chilly. Nothing record breaking, not even close, but chilly and even a bit snowy. About halfway through the month things began to get warm and wet. Not record breaking wet like December 2015, but a solid eight and a half inches of precipitation managed to find the rain gauge. This translated into gobs of fluffy white powder in the upper elevations and torrents of rushing water down here.

There were enough fifties in January to catch the attention of the marketing people at AARP. Downtown Vancouver and parts of Portland were playing footsie with 60 degrees, I topped out at 56.5 on the 25th, one of 7 days finding the 50 plus mark. The warmest over night low came on the 27th with a toasty 46. Early in the month the chilliest morning was the 3rd with a modest mark of 23.5, one of 11 days under the freezing mark. The coldest daytime high arrived later that same day when the mercury failed to get out of the 20's, peaking at 29.5. That was the only day that couldn't get above freezing and it turned out to be the snowy day as well when 1.75 inches fluffy white was on the ground. A little bit more snow fell over the next few days mostly as mixed precipitation.

Speaking of precipitation, the month finished up with 8.57 inches in the bucket which for me is about an inch and a half above my 15 year average. 22 days of rain but relatively dry compared to the 16 inch deluge that ended 2015. A flat 2 inches of snow fell from the 3rd through the 5th, nearly all of it on the 3rd. The snow actually hung around in shady spots for over a week; it's unusual for such a light dusting to hang around that long. The wettest day had 1.01 inches of rain; that was one of 13 days with a 1/4 in the bucket or more and one of four with more than 3/4 inch.

Overall the month was about dead on average for daytime highs and a couple of degrees warmer over night by the norms. This may turn out to be a fickle winter; the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde analogy may continue to be relevant as the year progresses. Central Washington has been in a pretty deep freeze most of this winter and if that cold air stays in place east of the Cascades, a cold snap is inevitable here in the West. We shall see.

Warm and cool, warm and cool. Soak it up my friends, soak it up.

Wow a Chilly Month, Finally

November is done and for the first time in, I don't know how long, I have a calendar month that ended up chillier than average overall. The average daytime high was actually about 3 degrees above my 15 year "normal" but the overnight lows, largely fueled by the very chilly end of month was well below "normal" to the tune of -4 degrees. Overall my mean temp was about 1 degree below normal.

The very last day of month produced one of the chilliest November temperatures I have seen in nearly fifteen years at this location. The mercury bottomed out at 16.1 degrees to cap the end of a long streak of subfreezing mornings. That cold low on the 30th led to the chilliest afternoon high of the month at 37.1. The warmest day of the month was early on when we topped 65 on the 6th of the month. That may be the last 60 plus day we see till the end of February. On the 14th of the month we enjoyed a balmy 51.6 degree overnight low which was the warmest of the month and the only low mark above 50. Overall there were thirteen mornings below freezing and four that dropped below 20 degrees.

On the precipitation front we had one snow threat that delivered zero at my location but some flurries and light sleet were reported elsewhere around town. That of course was the 30th of the month. Rainfall was typical for November with a wet and soggy 9.17 inches which is a little more than an inch above my established normal. This was not the drippy variety as we had 12 days with more than a quarter inch and 2 days with more than an inch of H2O coming down. For the month we had 19 days with precipitation and just 8 under sunny or partly sunny skies. I hope this damp November is a precursor to the rest of the season because I have had two dry winters in a row. Let's not make it a third please.

The outlook for early December is mild and wet. Local weather prognosticators are calling for showery conditions beginning tonight and lasting into next week. Let's hope for soggy and maybe some fluffy white in time for Christmas. I know, a white Christmas in the 'Couv' is a rare deal. I have had but one since moving to this location almost 15 years ago.

Whatever the weather, get out and soak it up my friends, soak it up.