January 2012 Revisited (finally)

Speaking of "time slipping away", it really does. Especially when you're procrastinating, which is pretty much my normal mode.Anyway, in the spirit of "better late than never", here's January 2012, which turned out to be a really interesting month, if you like devastating, history-making ice storms.

The ice storm, which started on Jan 18, and continued for way too many days, was awesome, in a horribly fascinating weather sort of way. For weather geeks (like me), it was exciting, perhaps even beyond our wildest dreams (clever tie-in to the video below). In most other ways, it sucked big time. Power was out, for some areas more than a week, many trees and branches were downed, and it was definitely the worst ice damage in many decades. I could link to zillions of Google sites, and a whole bunch of YouTube videos, but I won't, because there's literally zillions of them.

However, compared to historical January averages, Hood River was actually warmer than long term averages, but cooler than recent years, and slightly above average in rain, snow, and solar radiation. It was below average in wind, but since nobody in their right mind is wind-sporting on the river in January, that was ok.

My station's average temperature of 36.0° was a lot warmer than the long term January average of 33.6°, but a little cooler than the more recent (2001-2011) average of 36.6°. The official average temperature in Hood River, recorded at HOXO, was 35.7°.

The maximum temperature (at my station) in January was 53°, and the low temp was 28°. Official Hood River highs and lows (at HOXO) were 53° and 31°. The high heat index for the month was 53°, and the low wind chill was 18°.

Solar radiation averaged 110 Ly/day, compared to an average January solar radiation of 85 Ly/day. Overall, it was a bright month, with hardly any inversions. The maximum solar radiation, 222, occurred on the 27th. The minimum, 26, occurred on the 17th.Official precipitation totaled 6.73" at HOXO, and 7.41" at my station, compared to an average of 5.14". The high rain day was 1.63" on the 21st.

We officially accumulated 17.5" of snow. In actuality, it was a mixture of show, ice, and freezing rain, with the maximum falling as 12" on January 19th. Average snowfall for January in Hood River is 14.6".

The 24 hour average wind speed at my somewhat sheltered weather station was 1.3 mph, compared to an average January wind speed of 2.1 mph. The peak wind gust was 34 mph on the 26th. Wind speeds at other less sheltered locations, such as the Columbia River, were undoubtedly higher.Barometric pressure peaked at 30.68" on the 11th. Low barometric was 29.33" on the 21st.

There were 2 records set in January: On January 18th, we received 12 inches of some sort of combination of snow and ice. The old January record was 7 inches in 1954. On January 19th, we received 1.67" of water-equivalent precipitation, breaking the old record of 1.22" (1950).
These monthly summaries use data from my weather station located near May and Rand Streets in Hood River. To view my weather station's data for January 2012, click here.

For official Hood River data, and historical averages/records, the data comes from both the manually read NOAA station at MCAREC, and HOXO, the automated station located right next to MCAREC.

If you dream of ice storms, this month was yours to dream, wildly...