September 2010 Revisited

Compared to historical averages, September in Hood River was warmer, a little wetter, and calmer.

At my weather station, the average temperature of 62.8° was way warmer than long term averages (1897 to present) of 60.0°, but was almost right on the shorter term (2001-2009) average of 63.0°.

The high heat index for the month was 88°, and the low wind chill was 42°. Barometric pressure peaked at 30.20, with a low of 29.71.

September's rain total was just slightly above average; most of it falling between the 15th to the 20th. The high daily rainfall was 0.48" on the 17th.

The 24 hour avg wind speed was 2.2 mph, considerably lower than the average September (3.2 mph). In fact, this was the least windy September going back to at least 2001, when my wind data starts. Still, there were enough days with good westerlies that it was another great month in the Gorge for wind sports, making this one excellent summer for those activities.

September was also an excellent month for blowing away official local weather records. A total of 4 records were set: On the 17th, the "high low" temperature of 60° surpassed the old record of 58° (1943) Also on that day, we received 0.46" rain (old record 0.21" in 1997). On the 27th, the high low of 57° broke the previous record of 56° (1939), and was followed the next day by yet another high low record of 56° (old record 55 in 1942).

The tabular data below is from my home weather station. To view its September 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 speeds at my station are considerably lower than on the Columbia River.

	High	Low	Average	Historical Average
Temperature (F)	90	42	62.8	60.0
Wind (mph)	27		2.2	3.2
Rainfall (in)	0.48		1.08 (total)	1.01