Two days, two high temperature records. Today's high of 99 broke the old record of 95 (1942).
Thunderstorms rolled in this afternoon, along with a shift to west winds. Not much rain, but a definite cool-down. I do wish we had more thunderstorms around here, except for the wildfire part...
Today's high of 102 demolished the previous record of 98 set in 2000. In addition, tomorrow's record high of 95 will almost certainly fall. Summer has kicked in with a vengence.
But, as is typical with local weather patterns, heat waves here don't last more than 3 days, and cooler temps are on tap by Tuesday.
And speaking of on tap, this weather definitely calls for a cool beverage (or two).
The first full day of summer. Overcast, little to no wind, 75 to 80 degrees. Very pleasant; a great day to be outside. Our cat Tucker totally agrees.
Check out the full moon rising the next couple of evenings at sunset (around 9 pm). Due to seasonal alignments, the "solstice moon" is one of the more spectacular moonrises of the year. Local forecasts are for clear skies around sunset, so we might luck out on this one...
In this record breaking cold Spring, temperatures reaching into the 70's feel like a heat wave. Very nice. The extremely epic winds on the river have blessed the wind sports enthusiasts to the point of exhaustion. Those of us not participating in windsurfing or kiteboarding are desperately trying to hang on to anything to prevent being blown away.
Vegetable gardens, having experienced a slow start, are now kicking into gear big time. Our lettuce and garlic are coming along nicely:
Currently harvesting lettuce, green onions, radishes, snow peas, sugar snap peas, cilantro, and celery. Summer squash in a week or two...
Today's chilly temperatures placed another exclamation point on the ongoing saga of the "Really Cold And Somewhat Depressing Spring Of 2008". The high today of 57 most likely broke the "lowest high" record for any June 10th. The previous record of 60 degrees was set in 1970.
Warmer temperatures are forecast starting Thursday. Bring it on. Please.
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 |
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.
