August 2011 Revisited

Compared to historical averages, August 2011 in Hood River was hotter, sunnier, and windier.

My station's average temperature of 70.1° was way warmer than the long term August average of 66.6° (yikes...there's that number again...), and also warmer than the more recent (2001-2010) average of 68.7°. The official average temperature in Hood River, recorded at HOXO, was 69.1°.

In case you're wondering (and even if you aren't), this was the warmest August since 2004. It really didn't feel like an especially warm August, but things warmed up in the 2nd half of the month, and night time lows stayed unusually warm.

At my station, the maximum temperature was 95°, and the minimum was 47°. Official Hood River highs and lows were 93° and 44°. The high heat index for the month was 93°, and the low wind chill was 47°.

Solar radiation averaged 598 Ly/day, compared to an average August solar radiation of 568 Ly/day. The maximum solar radiation, 661, occurred on August 1st.

Official precipitation totaled 0.05", compared to an average of 0.37". My station recorded 0.06". The high rain day (in fact, the ONLY rain day) was the 26th.

The 24 hour average wind speed at my somewhat sheltered weather station was 5.0 mph, compared to an average August wind speed of 3.7 mph. This was, believe it or not, the windiest August since I started keeping wind records in 2001.

The peak wind gust was 30 mph on the 13th. Wind speeds at other less sheltered locations, such as the Columbia River, were undoubtedly higher. Barometric pressure peaked at 30.13", with a low of 29.74".

There was 1 local weather record set in August. On August 25th, it didn't hardly cool off at night, and the temperature only dropped to 67° at HOXO (70° at my station), breaking the previous "high low" record for the date of 64° in 1958. There were other days in mid to late August that tied or came close to the previous "high low" records, and that helps account for the relatively high overall average temperature for August.

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 August 2011, 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.

Summer finally arrives in Hood River. Break out the limes and the coconuts?

July 2011 Revisited

Compared to historical averages, July 2011 in Hood River was either average in temperature, or slightly cooler, depending on how you look at it. Also, it was cloudier and wetter, with above average winds.

My station's average temperature (67.3°) was exactly the same as the long term July average (yep, 67.3°), but cooler than the more recent (2001-2010) average of 70.5°. The official average temperature in Hood River, recorded at HOXO, was 66.2°.

At my station, the maximum temperature was 94°, and the minimum was 47°. Official Hood River highs and lows were 92° and 44°. The high heat index for the month was 90°, and the low wind chill was 47°.

Solar radiation averaged 613 Ly/day, compared to an average July solar radiation of 668 Ly/day. The maximum solar radiation, 741, occurred on July 8th.

Official precipitation totaled 0.34", compared to an average of 0.22". My station recorded 0.33". The high rain day was the 25th, when 0.12" of rain fell.

The 24 hour average wind speed at my somewhat sheltered weather station was 4.4 mph, compared to an average wind speed of 4.1 mph for the month. The peak wind gust was 29 mph on the 7th. Wind speeds at other less sheltered locations, such as the Columbia River, were undoubtedly higher. Barometric pressure peaked at 30.17", with a low of 29.65".

There was 1 local weather record set in July. On July 25th, 0.12" of rain fell, breaking the old record for the date of 0.03" (1983). At 0.03", this was clearly a record just waiting to be broken.

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 July 2011, 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.

As an aside, but definitely related to weather, the Columbia River ran very high and fast this April thru most of the summer, due to large Spring snowpacks. Graphs of flows and stuff from USGS are here. And below, a historical video look at the mighty Columbia, produced back in 1947, but still fascinating. Thanks Dan in the weather chat room for the original link.

June 2011 Revisited

Yes, I know... I've been avoiding my blogging responsibilities (whatever those are). Here it is October 2nd, and I'm just now grudgingly posting the "June 2011 Revisited" blog. My excuse, and the one my legal team (if I had one) told me to use, is that I took some time off to "get my mind right". It didn't work, my mind still isn't quite right. But, with the cooler, more indoor-type months upon us now, I decided to at least catch up on the "Monthly Revisited" postings.

Here's my real excuse: it takes several excruciating hours of compiling data from various sources to do these summaries, and I often run into the same dilemma. Which is: MCAREC holds and maintains the official NOAA database for Hood River. It's what I base my determinations on, of when a new record is set. However, their data is very slow to become available. Plus, they take their readings at 8 am, and temperature and rainfall amounts get attributed to that day, rather than the correct way of attributing precipitation and high temperature to the previous day.

As a result, this past June my frustration level with that reached a new peak, when the heavy thunderstorm rain that we received on June 5th, actually got attributed to June 6th by MCAREC on their official monthly report. I know, it's kind of a minor thing in The Big Picture, but month after month, year after year of wondering what data to report in these monthly summaries, and when records are set, finally got to me, and I gave up and took the summer off from writing the damn things.

But, I'm back, mentally refreshed, ready to play, so put me in, Coach.

I still don't really know how to resolve the MCAREC dilemma, but next time it bothers me, I'm gonna have a couple of cold ones, take a deep breath, and... have a couple more cold ones.

So, without further ado, here's June 2011 Revisited:

Compared to historical averages, June 2011 in Hood River was average in temperature, wetter, with slightly above average winds.

My station's average temperature this June of 62.0° was slightly warmer than long term averages (61.8°), but cooler than the recent (2001-2010) average of 63.0°. The official average temperature in Hood River was 61.1°.

At my station, the maximum temperature was 88°, and the minimum was 41°. Official Hood River highs and lows were 85° and 39°. The high heat index for the month was 87°, and the low wind chill was 41°.

Solar radiation picked up a bit from earlier this Spring, averaging 603 Ly/day, compared to an average June solar radiation of 618 Ly/day. The maximum solar radiation, 782, occurred on June 15th. By the way, the maximum daily solar radiation on record (785) in recent history in Hood River was on June 15, 2005. Since length of day is the predominate factor in solar radiation (cloud cover is the other), the high usually occurs in June. But not always; if June is really cloudy, the yearly high can occur in early July.

Official precipitation totaled 1.24", compared to an average June of 0.76". My station recorded 1.10". Most of the rain fell on June 5/6, during the awesome thunderstorm featured in a previous post.

The 24 hour average wind speed at my somewhat sheltered weather station was 4.4 mph, compared to an average June wind speed of 4.1 mph. The peak wind gust was 30 mph on the 14th. Wind speeds at other less sheltered locations, such as the Columbia River, were undoubtedly higher. Barometric pressure peaked at 30.23", with a low of 29.60".

There was 1 local weather record set in June, during the aforementioned awesome thunderstorm. On June 6th, 0.98" of rain fell, breaking the old record for the date of 0.43" (1993).

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 June 2011, click here.

For official HR 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.

May 2011 Revisited

Compared to historical averages, May 2011 in Hood River was way colder, way cloudier, and way wetter, with above average winds.

May continued the increasingly annoying pattern of disappointing, disgusting, and downright despicable weather this Spring. Day after day, week after week, month after month of cold, cloudy, wet, hope-destroying weather. Am I bitter? Yes, but I'll get over it, and then I'll be complaining about the way too hot, way too dry, and way too windy Summer weather.

Anyway, the average temperature this May of 52.9° was colder than long term averages (56.2°), and even more colder than the recent (2001-2010) average of 57.4°. We can, however, take a small amount of perverse satisfaction in that it wasn't quite as cold as last May. And we can only hope this isn't some sort of diabolical pattern emerging for Spring in the NW.

Speaking of cold, here's Mark Nelsen, from Portland's Ch12, with his May summary. Note that the darkest blue areas, setting more local records in the US than any other area, are right in our area!

Here in Hood River, the maximum temperature was 74°, and the minimum was 32°. The high heat index for the month was 72°, and the low wind chill was 32°.

Going along with the continued cloudy trend this Spring, solar radiation averaged only 487 Ly/day, which was pretty dimly lit compared to an average April solar radiation of 546 Ly/day.

Official precipitation totaled 3.12", compared to an average May of 1.15". My station recorded 3.41". The all time record for May rainfall in Hood River is 3.34" (2005), which means I had a record monthly rainfall at my house, but alas, not an official record for HR. Sigh... the story of my life...

It rained on 11 of the 30 days in the month, which is, if you're counting, a third of the time. The maximum daily rainfall (1.55") occurred on May 15th.

The 24 hour average wind speed for May at my somewhat sheltered weather station was 3.9 mph, compared to the historical average of 3.6 mph. The peak wind gust was 35 mph on May 14th. Wind speeds at other less sheltered locations, such as the Columbia River, were undoubtedly higher. Barometric pressure peaked at 30.47", with a low of 29.53".

There were 3 local weather records in May. On May 15th, MCAREC received 1.55" of rain, blasting by the old record of 0.64 set in 2001. On May 28th, the high temperature only reached 56°, breaking the old "low high" record of 57° in 2006. And, on May 31st, 0.95" of rain, which surpassed the old record of 0.75" in 1993.

These monthly summaries use the official NOAA data from MCAREC when available. Here's their data for May 2011. Some data isn't available there, so that comes from my station located near May and Rand Streets in Hood River. To view my weather station's data for May 2011, click here.

Luckily (or unluckily, depending on one's beliefs), the Rapture didn't occur on May 21 as predicted. Not to worry though, the next ETA is October 21.

Thunderstorm!

On June 5th, as the first heat wave of the year (80+ degrees for 2 days) was winding down, an upper level low off the California coast began spinning moisture up in our direction.

And then, against all normal odds, at approximately 7:30 pm, a thunderstorm of epic proportions (for Hood River) moved in overhead, and remained parked here for an amazing 90 minutes of awesome lightning, a number of almost instantaneous thunderclaps, and torrential downpours.

My weather station recorded 1.01 inches during the event, most of it happening in the first 30 minutes or so. At one point, I recorded a rainfall rate of 5.76"/hour, which is the highest rate I've seen since I've been paying attention to such stuff. It remains to be seen what MCAREC, the official NOAA station in Hood River received, but their automated station nearby registered 0.98". The previous record rainfall for June 5th in HR was 0.48" in 1993.

Ok, so this was probably just a 3 or so on a scale of 1-10 for typical Midwest t-storms, but still... for Hood River, which has this uncanny ability to divert thunderstorms around so they don't happen here, it was totally awesome.

Gary Boggs captured a couple of videos here and here, and below is a video from the Hood River News on the event. If I find more photos/videos, I'll post 'em.