June is only 2 hours away…really hard to believe isn’t it? What a strange and cold spring it has been. As meteorologists, we generally consider the three spring months (if there are 4 seasons) to be March, April, and May. This is the only spring I remember where we’ve seen no decent warm spell. Yes, of course we had all of three days around 70 a week or so ago, but that’s it.
So is it the WORST SPRING EVER? I think so…here’s why:
1. The March-May average temperature was 49.33 degrees, the 4th coldest in Portland’s history and the coldest in 44 years!. The 3 colder were 1955, 1964, and 1967.
2. The March-May total rainfall (with 2 hours to go) is 14.41″ That’s the 2nd wettest in Portland’s history. And only .09″ below the wettest year of 1997.
So how wet were those other cold years? All three were near or well below average rainfall-wise. Those springs were chilly, but not wet like this year.
And how cold was the wettest spring, 1997? Not very cool…in fact during May 1997, there was a 10 day stretch in which 7 of those days made it into the 80s! I remember that one clearly…that was a fantastic May.
Put those two together and I say we haven’t seen such a combination of cold and wet during the three spring months in Portland’s history, at least back to 1940, which is when airport records began.
Current Weather: Nice cluster of showers really giving a soaking to the extreme SE part of the metro area this evening. It appears that a marine push coming in from the northwest through the rest of the metro area kept the convection just to the south. You could see a swift movement of lower clouds coming in from the northwest on our Skyline camera around 6-7pm.
Looking ahead…models are still in line for the big, brief warmup this weekend! Easterly flow commences overhead Friday afternoon and continues through early Sunday. 850 mb temps went a little crazy on the earlier GFS (+18 deg C!), so I based an 85 degree temperature forecast Saturday from our chart, which shows a possible high between 83-88 degrees based on a +15 deg 850mb temp and offshore flow. Most important, models are not shifting the low any closer…a very good sign of model continuity.
Chief Meteorologist Mark Nelsen