October 2009 Revisited

Compared to historical averages, October in Hood River was cooler, a little drier, and less windy.

The average temperature (50.5°) was 0.8 degrees cooler than long term averages, and 1.8 degrees cooler than more recent averages (2000-2008). This reversed the previous 3 month's pattern of warmer than average temperatures. In this century, only 2002 and 2007 were slightly cooler at 50.4°. There was 2.23" of rain, compared to an average October precipitation of 2.38". The wind speed was considerably lower than average. This was the least windy October since at least 2002.

October was especially notable for having an early frost, and an extremely early snowfall (see previous blog post). But the snow melted fast, and didn't count as an official MCAREC Hood River record. Still, it was a lot of fun to watch, and it was the earliest snowfall in Hood River in my memory, which goes back to 1976. Assuming my memory is correct, which isn't a given.

There was 1 officially confirmed local weather record set in October. On the 13th, the high temperature only reached 40°, breaking the previous "low high" of 49° set in 1966.

The data below is from my home weather station. To view its monthly summary and graphs at Weather Underground, click here.

The "historical average" numbers for temperature and rainfall are from the Hood River MCAREC data. Historical wind average is from my station's 2000 to 2008 data. Note that average wind speeds include all 24 hours of the day and night, which is why they are way lower than daytime peak winds. In addition, the wind speed at this station is considerably lower than on the Columbia River.

	High	Low	Average	Historical Average
Temperature (F)	69	27	50.5	51.3
Wind (mph)	31		1.3	2.1
Rainfall (in)	0.56		2.23 (total)	2.38