December Revisited
December was a pretty entertaining month, weather wise. Warmer and wetter than average, with a nice mix of changing weather patterns. Heavy rain early in the month, which flooded Western Oregon and Washington, had little flood impact here. And, best of all, there were quite a few days where the clouds/fog parted and the sun made a welcome appearance.
December's average temperature was 1.8 degrees warmer than long term averages, and 1.4 degrees above 2000-2006 averages. Precipitation was a little more than 2 inches above average. At our location in west Hood River (400 ft), we had maybe 6 inches of total snow throughout the entire month, and it melted fast each time. Much higher snow amounts were recorded in the middle and upper valleys. Wind speeds were average, with west winds slightly predominate over east winds. That's pretty unusual for December; east winds usually prevail. And that also helps explain the total lack of depressing extended inversion events during the month.
There were no local records set in December.
| High | Low | Average | Historical Average | Variance | |
| Temperature (F) | 59.5 | 26.7 | 37.9 | 36.1 | 1.8 |
| Wind (mph) | 28 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 0.0 | |
| Rainfall (in) | 1.86 | 7.99 | 5.81 | 2.18 | |
| Barometric (in Hg) | 30.60 | 29.57 |
You are going to have to extend you pressure graphs down past 29 inches for this next storm. They say the pressure might be so low it will be historic! Hold on to your hats!
ReplyDeleteWow, thanks for the heads up! I just looked at the pressure readings (from work here in TD): 29.03 in HR and 29.04 in TD.
ReplyDeleteI haven't found any database for historic barometric pressure readings in Hood River, but at our home station, the lowest reading has been 29.84 on December 16, 2002.
The 2 week baro chart on the HR weather site doesn't automatically scale, but the 24 hour near the top of the site does.
Oops, make that "28.94" as the lowest barometric in 2002... and we've already broken that record today.
ReplyDelete