Warm Storm

Today was (and still is) a totally fascinating weather day in Hood River. For me, it started at 5 am as I staggered out onto the deck with my first cup of coffee. I had heard the wind howling earlier in the night and figured the broken clouds might provide an excellent view of the full moon. I wasn't disappointed. I attempted to take some pictures of the moon with the clouds swirling past it. No go. Kinda looks like a blurry streetlight. My picture taking skills definitely need some work.

Anyway, we had a peak gust at our house of 36 mph at 6:23 am. That's the second highest gust of the year here, surpassed only by the 37 mph gust on January 17.

This is an unseasonably warm storm. This morning's low of 57 most likely set a record for the "high low" for any Nov 12. The previous record was 48 degrees in 1999. Then, afternoon temperatures warmed up to 65 degrees, tying the record high set in 1990. At my workplace in The Dalles, the high reached a balmy 74 degrees. (Don't ya just love the word "balmy"?)

As I write this (6:05 pm), it's still 60 degrees out, and raining heavily. Regionally, there is some concern about localized flooding, but this early in the season there's not enough snow to melt to cause more severe widespread flooding. It's more a problem with leaves clogging storm drains and water backing up.

I sure do enjoy stormy weather, just short of the point where it starts destroying things.