5pm Monday…
February was not only the warmest on record here in Portland, but also warmer than a typical March! Today’s low of 45 and high of 52 are the final numbers of the month, so now we can calculate the numbers:
A full 5.5 degrees above average! This JUST BARELY beats February last year for the top spot…by all of .1 degree.
These past two Februarys have been a far cry from the cool and wet February 2014 (with the snow & ice) haven’t they?
March is sure looking wet, at least the first two weeks. Check out the GFS meteogram…the ECMWF is similar:
Temperatures should be near normal, but then it turns cooler about a week from now as a cold upper-level trough edges closer. You can also see the shift to cooler on the ECMWF monthly maps from last night.
Week 1 & Week 2 (these next two work weeks)
Then in week 3 & 4 the trough weakens and retreats farther west along with the ridging over us and north. This would imply spring starts the 2nd half of the month:
For the real geeks, here are the precipitation anomaly maps for the 4 week period showing much drier weather after the 2nd week…we’ll see.
Chief Meteorologist Mark Nelsen