January Stats: Warm, Wet in Places

An interesting month here in Portland.  Chilly, windy, and sunny to start, a bunch of heavy rain plus mild temps in the middle, then mild and dry for the last 3rd.  It all averaged out to a warmer than average January with near normal precipitation.  Still no snowfall either.  As of February 1st the “terrible winter” of 2010-2011 has produced no sticking snow in Portland.  Very rare for a moderate-strong La Nina winter.  Yes, the palm tree is a bit dramatic, but notice we had 14 days with highs in the 50s here in Portland, that’s unusual too.

Here are the stats for some Pacific Northwest Stations:

Station, Temperature Anomaly (from 30 year average), Total Precipitation, Precip Anomaly

Portland: 41.7 (+1.78),  4.78″ (-.34″)

Salem:  42.3 (+2.0),  3.25″ (-2.59″)

Eugene: 41.5 (+1.7),   2.05″ (-5.60″)

Olympia:  40.2 (+2.1),  7.27″ (-.27)

Astoria: 42.3 (-.1),  12.20″ (+2.58)

Redmond:  34.8 (+1.6),  .47″ (-.50)

Pendleton:  35.4 (+1.6),  1.41″ (-.04)

Here’s a nice image showing temperature anomaly across the West since the beginning of December.  Click on it for a better view.  No surprise here; the Western USA has had a very mild winter so far.  I see Burns sticks out nicely with all the cold nights and chilly days due to early snow cover on the ground that started back in late November.  So now it’s February and what do we see?  More of the same for the next 7-10 days.   Unusually dry conditions for AT LEAST another week.

Use this post to put in your stats for this past January only, please continue discussion on the previous post.

Today; Coldest Day in a Month

Cold air pouring in from the east has dramatically cooled and dried the airmass over Northwest Oregon and SW Washington the last 24 hours.  The east wind is raging and temps are in the lower 30s across most of the Metro area this morning.  We’ll be lucky to hit 40 in Portland today.  Combine that with the wind and you get windchill readings in the 20s most of the day.  Of course the strongest wind will be on the east side of the Metro area closest to the Columbia River and south of the river too.

Check out the temperatures on the KPTV Tower.  26 degrees at 1,800′ this morning vs. 38 yesterday morning.  Pressure gradient through the Gorge is around 7 millibars, although gusts haven’t been too crazy.  Corbett has been around 50 mph and Troutdale/Portland 30-40 mph.  The Vista House sensor is up and running for just today and tomorrow, then I’m going to yank the computer out and fix up the software issue.  We’ll see how strong it gets up there today.

Enjoy the bright and cold sunshine!

Chief Meteorologist Mark Nelsen