January 2014 Revisited

January 2014 was much like January 2013:  Boring.  In fact, I'm starting to think we should just skip January entirely from here on out, if this boring pattern persists.  Here's the boring summary for this January:

Above average: Temperature
Average or near: Solar radiation
Below Average: Wind, rainfall, snowfall

We moved back into the very familiar lately "warmer than average" category this month.  My station's average temperature of 37.2° was way warmer than the long term January average of 33.6°, and warmer than the more recent (2001-2013) average of 36.4°. The official average temperature in Hood River, recorded at HOXO, was 36.7°. 

The maximum temperature (at my station) was 54°, and the low temp was 23°. Official Hood River highs and lows (at HOXO) were 54° and 20°.

January continued the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge of high pressure pattern which started in December.   This continued the ridiculously low snow pack in the mountains; putting the snow-water equivalent for the Hood basin at around 20% of average.  And the ridiculous ridge gave us a ridiculously long Gray Inversion event, lasting 11 days, from 1/18 through 1/28.  That was ridiculously insane, and not in a good way.

In spite of the long inversion, solar radiation averaged 91 Ly/day, compared to an average January of 87 Ly/day.

The 24 hour average wind speed (for the month) at my weather station was 1.4 mph, compared to an average January wind speed of 2.0 mph.  The peak wind gust was 37 mph on the 11th.  Wind speeds at other less sheltered locations (like the Waterfront) were, of course, higher. 

Barometric pressure peaked at 30.72", and the low barometric was 29.53".

Regarding rainfall, my station received 3.82", while HOXO recorded 3.11".  An average January receives 5.10", and our water-year-to-date precipitation continued to slip even further behind than in December.

To accentuate the boring tediousness of the month even more, we received no measurable snowfall, whereas an average January receives 14.6" of snow.

And the icing on the boring cake that was January 2014?  Check this out:  there were absolutely no weather records set during the month.  Is that boring, or what?

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 2014, 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.

Ok, so it was a boring month, weather-wise.   But that didn't stop me from dreaming of sailing away to warmer places.   Well done, Brian Wilson and crew.

But there's another, better reason for this classic Beach Boys sailing-related song video.   I'm posting this (late, as usual) on May 8th, when the annual Oregon Offshore Race is going on, and as usual, local favorite "Velocity", skippered by local weather enthusiast TomK, is being cheered on.