Transitions

Transition: a passage from one steady state to a new steady state, sometimes disruptively.

We are currently experiencing a weather transition in Hood River, and not a moment too soon. After 2 weeks of arctic air sitting over us and producing prodigious amounts of snowfall, we are transitioning to warmer air. This arctic blast has lasted almost twice as long as is typical here, and has resulted in record amounts of snow pack on the ground in Hood River for the second half of December.

Arctic blasts aren't unusual here; most winters we have at least one. This one stands out in its duration, intensity, and amount of snowfall. Not to mention, icicles. Amazing icicles, extending in some cases from roof top to ground. Icicles that reflect and refract light in dancing patterns and colors. Nature's natural lead crystals. Icicles that potentially can pull gutters down to the ground and create ice dams that leak water into houses. Beauty and destruction, all in one neat package.

Traditionally, we usually transition from an arctic blast with sleet and freezing rain. It looks like we might possibly avoid that this time. Fingers are crossed. And, with this much snow on the ground, fingers are especially crossed that flooding can be avoided in the next week.

Wecome To The Arctic

Arctic air, that is. This temporary incursion of arctic air presents a tremendous opportunity to experience living in a place that has really cold winters. But only for a week or so! Perfect!

We had 5 inches of snow Sunday (which may be a local record), a cold inversion Monday, and beautifully clear sunny weather today. High temp today 23, low 9, minimum wind chill 0 (zero). Tomorrow, snow moves back in, along with another big storm this weekend as the arctic air starts to moderate. This is interesting weather, and I like interesting weather.

Fortunately, arctic blasts here rarely last longer than a week. They usually end on a very messy precipitation event, but they usually end in a timely fashon.

And this one had a perfect setup, at least for garden plants: There were (and still are) several inches of snow on the ground before the really cold temperatures set in, giving plants and the soil a comfy insulating blanket.

Here's a zoomed in and very fuzzy view of Mt Adams from the deck this evening. I gotta trim those branches (except that they belong to a neighbor a block away):


I'll have another post shortly regarding my thoughts on the Hood River Weather site's new addition: the live chat window.

Warm Morning

This morning's low of 46 was warmer than the previous "high low" record of 44 degrees set in 1938. I'm not sure if that will hold, since cooler temperatures will probably follow this weak storm front after it moves out later today.

No snow at the Oregon ski resorts. Long range forecasts indicate the possibility of arctic air moving in next weekend and perhaps precipitation (snow!) after that. I certainly hope so. 'Tis the season, after all.

A couple of notes about the Hood River Weather site. In the true spirit of Christmas, I've added an affiliate Amazon.com gadget showing the "Deal of the Day" and other deals nearly impossible for any sane person to pass up. But, do feel free to pass them up, regardless of your sanity.

The weather site has not yet made me independently wealthy. In the interest of full disclosure, the Yahoo ad just below the Amazon ad actually brings in about $100 a year. Not enough to quit my day job, but then the site is more a fun hobby than anything else.

Also, I've added a link to Mark Nelsen's "Fox 12 Weather Blog" in the Weather Links area. I've been following Mark's blog for a while and am impressed with the weather model discussions. Mark also has a personal weather site full of interesting NW weather links.

Just in case you aren't hearing enough holiday music yet, here's my favorite Christmas song. Well, not specifically Christmas, but definitely winter wonderland related. This is the Eurythmics version of the tune:

Bundle Up

4:00 pm Sunday afternoon. It's still relatively warm outside at 37 degrees, but a very cold air mass from the northeast is coming our way this evening. This will be our first arctic breakout of the winter, but not at all unusual for January. Expect low temperatures over the next 4 days in the mid teens and maybe lower. In these type of events, we'll have east winds of 5 to 10 mph while Portland on the other end of the Gorge will have 50+ mph east winds. Brrrrr!

However, no chance of breaking any local all time cold records this week, as low temperatures in 1930 at this time in January were in the -15 to -20 range.

The Hood River Weather poll this week attempts to be topical with the question "how do you heat your home?" We have a natural gas furnace, supplemented occasionally with a wood stove. I've lived in 6 different houses here since 1976, and this combination of heating along with a pretty tight house is the best ever. Still, winter heating bills just keep climbing. It doesn't seem to matter that we use the same or fewer therms or KW hours, since the cost per unit continues to climb.

Oh, by the way, I replaced the outside temperature sensor late last week, and the occasional "extremely high temperature" reading problem hasn't reoccurred. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Single Digits

Our low temperature this morning was 9 degrees. This was only 3 degrees above the record low for this date set in 1947. Not sure when this arctic air will moderate; looking at the computer models, there's no clear end in sight.

But the good news is: this cold snap should kill off a lot of insect pests. The bad news is: this cold snap is probably a selective force for the survivors.... the stronger, hardier bugs... the ones they make science fiction movies about.... Stay tuned.

Winters in Hood River for the past 15 -20 years have been, on average, warmer than historical averages. For more official Hood River historical weather data, check out Oregon Climate Service data listings for Zone 6, specifically Hood River Experimental Station.

Beyond Moderately Cold

OK, so I was a bit optimistic in my previous post to call this a "moderately cold" air mass that was about to settle in over us. This is cold. Very cold. Not as cold as, say, Alaska, but still, quite cold.

This is, however, nowhere near the all time (at least since 1928) record low temp; that was -21 degrees on Feb 3, 1950. And it's not too unusual for a winter here to have a couple of cold snaps down into the single digits. Usually the arctic blast lasts less than a week before moderating.

It's nice to not have the typical fog inversion layer over us currently. The inversion happens here in the winter whenever a ridge of high pressure sets in over the Pacific Northwest. Years ago, they didn't occur all that often, but in recent years they have been noticeably more frequent.

Or perhaps it just seems that way as I get older and more easily bored and sometimes even irritated by DAY AFTER DAY AFTER DAY of gloomy dark gray depressing skies where the temperature is cold and hardly changes a couple of degrees in 24 hours and we have to hear about how sunny and beautiful it is in Portland and up on Mt Hood above the fog and the whole thing absolutely sucks. But maybe that's just me.

Enjoy the non-inversion days while they last (until the east wind kicks in, probably).

Speaking of Snow

Snow returns today to the Mid-Columbia region, followed by moderately cold arctic air for the next week or so. Feel free to post your local observations here...