I'm Back

OK, I know, 12 days is a bit long between blog posts, but I have excuses. Lots of 'em. I'll blame it mostly on a vacation spent visiting relatives and seeing incredible scenery in beautiful Southern Utah. Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks were awesome. Ancient sea beds thrust up over millions of years and partially eroded by wind and rain and ice. Quite excellent at putting our brief mortal lives into a much longer term perspective.

During my vacation, I apparently missed out on: a 4 day heat wave here, a forest fire near Mt Adams, and a wildfire in The Dalles. But I did return in time for epic winds and cooler temperatures. I'm hoping warmer summer temperatures will return sooner than later.

Sorry about the missing Hood River Weather site data today from 06:30 to 16:00 . Every now and again, my computer locks up, and if I'm away at work at the time, and can't reboot, well... missing data...

June Revisited

Compared to historical averages, June in Hood River was cool, windy, and dry.

The average temperature was 1.3 degrees cooler than long term averages, and 1.8 degrees below more recent averages (2000-2007). Wind speeds were considerably higher than average, with West winds predominating.

There were 2 local weather records set during the month. On June 29, the high of 99 broke the old record of 95 (1942). The next day, June 30, the high of 101 broke the old record of 99 (2003).

	High	Low	Average	Historical Average	Variance
Temperature (F)	101	40	60.6	61.9	-1.3
Wind (mph)	31		5.2	4.6	0.6
Rainfall (in)	0.15		0.48 (total)	0.80

That's Two

Two days, two high temperature records. Today's high of 99 broke the old record of 95 (1942).

Thunderstorms rolled in this afternoon, along with a shift to west winds. Not much rain, but a definite cool-down. I do wish we had more thunderstorms around here, except for the wildfire part...

That's One

Today's high of 102 demolished the previous record of 98 set in 2000. In addition, tomorrow's record high of 95 will almost certainly fall. Summer has kicked in with a vengence.

But, as is typical with local weather patterns, heat waves here don't last more than 3 days, and cooler temps are on tap by Tuesday.

And speaking of on tap, this weather definitely calls for a cool beverage (or two).

Ahhh ... Summer ...

The first full day of summer. Overcast, little to no wind, 75 to 80 degrees. Very pleasant; a great day to be outside. Our cat Tucker totally agrees.