46 Days w/o Rain
Today’s trace of precipitation ends a 46 day streak without rain. So, who says it always rains in the Northwest? This year’s streak started with the last rain on July 2 and ended August 19. Is summer over? Heck no, I say we still have a good month to go before any significant rain arrive.
Rain, Rain, and More Rain (May 2010 Climate Summary)
Wow, May was a wet one! 4.26″ to be exact. My average (since 1999) is 2.25″ which means this month is almost double the average. Contrast this year and 2005 (4.39″) with 2007 when I totaled only .81″. May seems like it can be quite the fickle month when it comes to rain. Here’s the statistics for this month:
Values in parenthesis are from 2009 for comparison.
High Temperature: 78.7 5/14 (88.5 in 2009)
Low Temperature: 38.1 5/7 (38.3 in 2009)
Mean Temperature: 53.4 (57.8 in 2009)
Rain: 4.26″ (2.43″ in 2009)
Wind Speed High: 32mph 5/19 (33 mph in 2009)
Wind Speed Average: 2 mph (2 mph in 2009)
Wind Speed Dominant Direction: S (N in 2009)
November in March
How about the storm we have going on right now? Seems like one of the big blows we normally have in November or December doesn’t it? So far (as of noon 3/29) I’m at .8″ of rain since this started yesterday and from what I read we’ve got a few more days of it. On top of that my peak wind gust was 4o m.p.h. at 4:20 this morning setting my high for the year so far.
Usually our weather this time of the year is more showery so this seems a bit unusual. Stay tuned to the weather forecasts over the next few days as it looks like the waves of rain could involve some thunderstorms. Oh and stay dry if you can.
Where’s The Snow?
I guess you could say El Niño took it….
No snow at the Cascade Tunnel. The orange markers on the left
are normally used by BNSF snow plow crews to locate the slide fence.
This weekend I visited Washington’s Steven’s Pass on a photography and railfanning adventure. I heard there was little snow on the pass but was shocked to find there was none in locations where I was used to seeing a couple of feet. In fact west of the summit there was not any snow below about 3000 ft. of elevation. East of the summit where the temperatures tend to stay low longer the snow extended out to around Peshastin.
In the several trips I made across the pass the lowest temperature I saw on my vehicle thermometer was 34 degrees! Since I’m not a skier I’m not sure how that affects skiing but I’m sure the snow was melting and slushy based on what I saw elsewhere. It did precipitate all weekend but it was primarily rain even at the 4000 ft. elevation at the summit.
So, what’s in store for us? According to the Climate Prediction Center…
For the contiguous United States, potential El Niño impacts include above-average precipitation for the southern tier of the country, with below-average precipitation in the Pacific Northwest and in the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys.
From the website it looks like another El Niño update will be issued Thursday so I guess stay tuned for what the rest of the year will hold.
Normal snow at the Cascade Tunnel. This is what it should be this time of year.
January 18th Wind
How about the wind last night? The combination of the wind and garbage day in my neighborhood wasn’t a good combination for me as all the noise of rattling garbage cans kept me up. Peak wind gust 33 mph at 1:43 1/18/2009.
Windy in the Gorge
I saw a news item this morning that the winds in the western Gorge reached 101 mph! Wow! The interesting thing is that at my place near the mall the wind is nearly calm. My peak wind gust yesterday was only 19. I had to head east of I-205 a couple of times yesterday and noted that just east of I-205 the winds picked up significantly. This just goes to show how there are many micro climates around our area.
