May Revisited

Compared to historical averages, May in Hood River was (oddly enough) slightly warmer and drier. It sure seemed cooler and wetter at the time, but apparently the brief record hot spell at the middle of the month moved the averages up. Go figure.

The average temperature was 0.9 degrees warmer than long term averages, and 0.3 degrees above 2000-2007 averages. Wind speeds were higher than average, with West winds predominating.

There were 3 local weather records set during the mid month warm spell. On May 17th, the high of 92 broke the old record of 90 (1954). The next day, May 18th, the high of 95 broke the old record of 91 (1956), and the low of 63 broke the old "high low" record of 56 (1986).

Why, you might ask, did I proclaim 5 records during the month in earlier posts to this blog? It comes down to the proverbial apples and oranges thing. The official keeper of Hood River weather data and records is the OSU Ag Research Station. However, their daily data is usually not published until several days later. Not only that, their data is collected at 8 am each day, meaning that their data is from 8 am to 8 am, and my weather station's data is from midnight to midnight. In addition, our stations are separated by several miles, and temperatures and rainfall can vary, sometimes substantially, at that distance.

So, one should consider any temperature and rainfall records that I mention during a month to be tentative. When I do this monthly summary, I use the OSU data (not my own station data) to confirm an official record.

Regarding wind gusts and averages, I am relying totally on my own station data from 2000 to present, as wind speeds vary dramatically locally, especially on the Columbia River (much higher than mine).

	High	Low	Average	Historical Average	Variance
Temperature (F)	95	32	57.3	56.4	0.90
Wind (mph)	30		4.3	3.9	0.4
Rainfall (in)	0.17		0.80 (total)	1.08	-0.28

Record Rain

Yesterday's rainfall of 0.41 inches surpassed the old record of 0.36 inches set in 1936.

I haven't crunched the numbers yet for May, but I'm pretty sure it was cooler than average. June is also starting off cool and wet. Lawns, gardens, and slugs are loving this. I'm glad something is.

But there's a bright side to this otherwise really depressing weather. There is so much snow still in the mountains (especially in the low to mid elevations) that a cool Spring is exactly what we need. Cool temps, slower snow melt, less flooding. In the Big Picture, this is a good thing.

Warm After All

I just came in from planting veges, weeding, and mowing the lawn. Seeing as how I'm dripping wet with sweat, yesterday's post about it not being warm this weekend is another example of my strategy of "reverse psychology". For the most part, whenever I make a forecast, you can expect the opposite to happen.

Upper 70's outside, and much more humid than I expected, making for a very pleasant afternoon.

Looking somewhat further out into the sky, the Phoenix Mars Lander will hopefully make a soft landing near the polar region of Mars tomorrow. Success is not at all guaranteed; past Mars exploration missions have failed about 50% of the time. The ones that have succeeded have returned incredibly awesome images and lots of scientific data, which will make future long term colonization of Mars possible. If you are interested, you can follow the progress of the mission on NASA's various media feeds.

Another Record

I suspect that I somehow cursed this Memorial Day's weekend weather in my previous post. I called the forecast for this weekend "warm". My bad. It's not going to be all that warm.

By Memorial Day Monday, daytime highs might reach the low 70's. Maybe not. Otherwise, cool and cloudy with occasional rain pretty much describe the next few days.

But we did break a temperature record today: the high of 52 was 2 degrees colder than the record "low high" of 54, previously set in 1953.

Make That 3 Days: 4 Records

This morning's low of 64 was 8 degrees warmer than the previous record "high low" of 56 set in 1986. Amazing. From one of the coldest Springs in memory to record high temperatures, just like that.

We're headed back into cooler temperatures this week, maybe with a touch of rain, followed by a warm Memorial Day weekend.