February 2010 Revisited

Compared to historical averages, February in Hood River was warmer, drier, and remarkably non-windy.

The average temperature (42.0°) was warmer than long term averages (38.4°), and warmer than more recent averages of 39.6° (2000-2009). There was 3.30" of precipitation, compared to an average February total of 3.65". The 24 hour avg wind speed was way lower than average (0.4 mph vs 1.8 mph), continuing the trend of lower average wind speeds for the past 6 months.

Like January, February started out unseasonably warm, and stayed that way until Feb 17, when modified arctic air moved in, with lows reaching into the mid to low 20's. This was almost certainly caused by my ridiculously early planting of sugar snap peas a few days prior. I'm sorry. Luckily, the peas survived, and emerged (looking somewhat pissed off) on March 6th.

Otherwise, February was mostly gray, with either inversions or storm clouds blocking the sun. There were, however, several sunny days, which explains the early pea plantings.

There were no local weather records set in February.

The data below is from my home weather station. To view its February 2010 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 2009 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)	61	24	42.0	38.4
Wind (mph)	18		0.4	1.8
Rainfall (in)	0.69		3.30 (total)	3.65

Don Williams, one of my favorite country singers/songwriters, singing one of my favorite country songs. In this video, he's either wasted, or seriously tired. In any event, great song.