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.

2 Days, 3 Record Temperatures

In an otherwise cold Spring, the past couple of days stand out as exceptional, especially if you like warm weather. And not just warm, but record-breaking HOT weather.

Yesterday's high of 93 shattered the old record of 88 (1970). This morning's low of 56 broke the previous "high low" temperature of 55 (1967). And today's high of 94 surpassed the previous record high of 90 (1954).

Temperature records were also set on the Oregon coast, and my friend in Roseburg Oregon reported a high yesterday of 105. Awesome, and way too hot.

Today, the moderating west winds kicked in around noon, reversing the east wind/hot weather pattern right on schedule with Temira's wind forecast.

Tomorrow's record high is 91, and it's not likely to surpass that, given the current west wind.

April Revisited

Compared to historical averages, April in Hood River was much cooler and somewhat drier, continuing the pattern that started in March.

The average temperature was 4.1 degrees cooler than long term averages, and 4.8 degrees below 2000-2007 averages. Wind speeds were average, with WSW winds predominate.

There were no local records set in April.

If long range forecasts hold up, there is relief from this cold Spring coming up. Temperatures might make it into the high 80's by next weekend. This would be a Good Thing.

	High	Low	Average	Historical Average	Variance
Temperature (F)	76.8	26.1	45.8	49.9	-4.1
Wind (mph)	29		3.4	3.3	0.1
Rainfall (in)	0.18		1.37 (total)	1.63	-0.26

Nice

The pattern continues. Another wonderful weather weekend; 74 degrees today. Great day to be outside. Cooler weather to come this week. If this has to be a cold Spring, at least the warm spells have been on weekends.

This week's poll wonders if you are registered to vote, and if you are, what party you are registered with. Due to the closeness of the Democratic race, the Oregon primary is shaping up to be nationally relevant. Not that it hasn't been, but usually the race is determined by now.