Hood River Weather Blog

April Revisited

2008-05-09T09:30:00.000-07:00

Compared to historical averages, April in Hood River was much cooler and somewhat drier, continuing the pattern that started in March.

The average temperature was 4.1 degrees cooler than long term averages, and 4.8 degrees below 2000-2007 averages. Wind speeds were average, with WSW winds predominate.

There were no local records set in April.

If long range forecasts hold up, there is relief from this cold Spring coming up. Temperatures might make it into the high 80's by next weekend. This would be a Good Thing.

	High	Low	Average	Historical Average	Variance
Temperature (F)	76.8	26.1	45.8	49.9	-4.1
Wind (mph)	29		3.4	3.3	0.1
Rainfall (in)	0.18		1.37 (total)	1.63	-0.26

Nice

2008-05-04T19:17:00.000-07:00

The pattern continues. Another wonderful weather weekend; 74 degrees today. Great day to be outside. Cooler weather to come this week. If this has to be a cold Spring, at least the warm spells have been on weekends.

This week's poll wonders if you are registered to vote, and if you are, what party you are registered with. Due to the closeness of the Democratic race, the Oregon primary is shaping up to be nationally relevant. Not that it hasn't been, but usually the race is determined by now.

Brrrr

2008-04-30T18:50:00.000-07:00

I just noticed that yesterday's high temperature of 50 degrees tied Hood River's "lowest high" temperature for the date (April 29), set in 1972.

Just another confirmation that this has been one cold Spring.

Last year, we were setting records for the opposite situation (highest low temperature). What a difference a year makes.

There's A Pattern Here

2008-04-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

And the pattern is: a very cold Spring, with a warm weekend two weeks ago, snow last weekend, and a warm weekend currently. Not that great of a pattern, but at least the few warm spells have been on weekends.

It hasn't been a good Spring for vegetable gardens. I planted radishes and peas March 1st, and they are at least 3 weeks behind normal growth. The cucumber seeds planted April 12 have yet to emerge, and at this point most likely won't. I probably should have put Walls-O-Water or something similiar over them.

May 1st marks the usual time to plant tomatoes, peppers, corn, squash, basil, and other warmth-loving veges at our Hood River city location (500 ft elevation). I may hold off a week or so this year, as cold wet weather is forecast to return tomorrow thru next week.

Here's how part of the vege garden looks currently. From front to back: garlic, lettuce, snow peas, last year's overwintered celery, onion starts, overwintered cilantro, perennial artichoke bed, new celery starts, and sugar snap peas. Not shown is the newly planted asparagus bed, which is a long-term investment, taking a couple of years before it can be harvested to any extent.

Speaking of vegetables (and locally grown stuff), Gorge Grown Food Network has an interesting survey on their web site, part of their ongoing efforts to bring together local food growers and local food consumers.

Just A Taste

2008-04-13T09:18:00.000-07:00

Of Spring: Warm, sunny weather made a welcome (but too brief) visit this weekend. Friday's high at our weather station was 70, while yesterday's high hit 77. Today looks to be somewhere around 70 to 75, as cooler and wetter air returns tonight through next week.

This week's Hood River Weather poll question is specifically designed to make you crazy or at least irritated. Given the federal government's seeming inability to contain spending, is it better to match income to outgo (tax and spend), or to borrow against the national debt and let future generations deal with it (borrow and spend).

I deliberately left out more reasonable choices (like maybe control spending better?), since I just don't see the feds wanting or being able to do that any time soon.

I waver between the two bad choices, but lean more towards tax and spend. It seems a little more honest, at least as long as the level of taxing does not unduly strain people's and company's budgets. As a percentage of GDP (which is how deficit defenders typically justify national debt), total taxation in the US is way down on the list, 34th lowest out of 36 major countries.

On the other hand, I think most people prefer tax cuts and especially "free" rebates from the feds. There is something to be said for Keynesian economic theory that it is rightfully the government's job to stimulate the economy through deficit spending in times of economic slowdowns.

Unfortunately, the flip side of Keynesian theory is that the government should run a balanced budget or surplus the rest of the time. But that involves responsible balancing of taxing and spending and is no fun at all for politicians or their constituents (us).

The last time we even came close to having a balanced budget was during the Clinton presidency, where gridlock between the Democratic president and Republican congress helped keep the government from adding and expanding spending programs.

So maybe gridlock is the economic model we should be striving for? And what does that mean for the choices in the upcoming presidential election?

March Revisited

2008-04-06T17:11:00.000-07:00

Compared to historical averages, March in Hood River was much cooler, a little windier, and drier.

So much for global warming. For now. Stay tuned...

The average temperature was 2.6 degrees cooler than long term averages, and a chilly 4.8 degrees below 2000-2007 averages. There was an unusually late snowfall event of 2 inches at the city elevation March 28th. Wind speeds were above average, with WSW winds predominate.

There were no local records set in March.

	High	Low	Average	Historical Average	Variance
Temperature (F)	64.3	27.5	41.6	44.2	-2.6
Wind (mph)	31		2.9	2.6	0.3
Rainfall (in)	0.42		2.58 (total)	3.13	-0.55

Snow

2008-03-28T16:04:00.000-07:00

Yep, it snowed today. March 28th. Amazing. Snow this time of the year in Hood River is not unheard of, but it's very unusual, especially for the past few decades. We had 2 inches on our deck by 8 am this morning. It melted away by noon, but snow flurries have continued sporadically all day. Today's high temperature only reached 39 degrees at our house, which ties the "lowest high" record for the date set in 1936. Since official Hood River records are kept by the OSU Ag Station, this may have actually broken that record. Tomorrow's "lowest high" record of 42 degrees (also in 1936) might fall, as cold, wet, and probably snowy weather is forecast thru Saturday noon. Things should start warming by Sunday into next week.

The last date in the Spring in Hood River that has ever received measurable snow is April 4th in (yep, you guessed it)...1936.

Spring Arrives (Sort Of)

2008-03-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

You wouldn't know it from the cold, mostly cloudy weather lately, but today marks the return of Spring. The vernal equinox, with nearly equal hours of daytime and nighttime, occurs when the tilt of the earth on its axis places the sun directly over the equator.

Whereas February in Hood River was warmer than average, March has been cooler. There have only been two days so far (March 9-10) where the high reached the low to mid 60's. Sure would be nice to have some 70 degree days, but the forecast for the rest of the month is for more of the same.

Lots of snowpack in the mountains though!

What Time It Is

2008-03-09T11:51:00.000-07:00

Does anybody really know? With apologies to the rock band Chicago, this week's Hood River Weather poll wonders if anybody really cares, or more specifically, what time switch strategy would you prefer?

It's somewhat mind boggling that the government can force us to set our alarm clocks so as to get us up an hour earlier 8 months out of the year. But not nearly as mind boggling as the concept and perception of time itself.

I like the extension of the daylight hours into the evening with Daylight Saving Time. But, then again, it's nice to have daylight in the early morning (especially in the winter), since my job and my exercise routine get me up at 5 am. My I-84 commute to The Dalles in the dark often brings hallucinations of possible deer or rockfall dead ahead, just out of the range of my headlights. Which, at highway speeds, is not very far ahead.

So, my ideal time switch would be DST from March through October, and then a 2 hour fall-back in winter for more daylight in the morning. But, they aren't asking me, and most likely they won't.

DST reduces national energy consumption by about 1% due to reduced need for electric lighting in the evenings. Or....does it?

Maybe the best plan would be to sleep more hours in the winter (and work fewer hours). Sort of a modified hibernation. Monthly pay, of course, would have to stay the same. I'll run that by my employer and see if it flies...

February Revisited

2008-03-07T18:01:00.000-08:00

February in Hood River was warmer, windier, and drier than average.

The average temperature was 2.8 degrees warmer than long term averages, and 3.1 degrees above 2000-2007 averages. There was no measureable snowfall at the city elevation. Wind speeds were above average, with SSW winds predominate. There were no inversion events during the month, making this winter the most fog-free winter in recent memory.

There was 1 local record set in February. On February 28, the high temperature hit 66 degrees, breaking the old record of 64 (1988)

	High	Low	Average	Historical Average	Variance
Temperature (F)	66.0	26.6	41.2	38.4	2.8
Wind (mph)	31		2.5	1.9	0.6
Rainfall (in)	1.15		3.08 (total)	3.65	-0.57

Record High Temperature Today?

2008-02-28T18:11:00.000-08:00

Maybe. The previous high temperature record for February 28 was 64 degrees in 1988. Our weather station registered 67 degrees today. We'll have to wait for the data at the OSU Mid-Col Ag Station to see if it was an actual official record. In any event, it was a beautiful warm sunny February day.

In a couple of days, I'll be planting the first veges of the season: snow peas. The plants emerge quicker if I soak the seeds overnight, place them in moist paper towels until they sprout, and then plant the sprouts. The first planting of radishes will also go in about March 1. I'm salivating uncontrollably just thinking about it. Which is probably way more information than you really wanted to know.

Universal Health Care?

2008-02-24T10:18:00.000-08:00

A little rain today, and then back to a dry pattern for at least a week. We're about 30% below average rainfall for the month, but still 13% wetter on a rain year basis. Plenty of snow pack in the mountains at this point, so not much chance of drought this year in Western Oregon.

This week's Hood River Weather poll asks whether we should be moving towards a "single-payer" universal health care system. Our current health care payment system is an inefficient, expensive mix of employer-provided benefits (which most employers are shedding as fast as they can), Medicare, largely unaffordable individual plans. and a huge group of uninsured people, many of whom end up overwhelming emergency rooms or foregoing care entirely.

There is no perfect health care payment system. There are, however, more efficient ones. We are the only wealthy, industrialized country that hasn't figured out that universal health care coverage, with a single payer system, costs much less per capita and provides the same or better level of care. Probably not as timely care for non-critical procedures, but timely enough. And those folks who can afford to pay for more immediate non-critical care would be able to, either thru private payment, supplemental insurance, or medical tourism. Even the Federal General Accounting Office estimates that a single payer system would reduce administrative costs, contain medical costs more efficiently, and save hundreds of billions of dollars.

Unfortunately, there is little political will for such a system, and no public groundswell in that direction. No current presidential candidate endorses a single-payer system. It's too much of a leap from the current system. The insurance lobbies are too powerful, and the time-worn protest of "no socialized medicine!" is a favorite rallying cry of many who still have good affordable coverage themselves. But we already have "socialized medicine". Medicare on the national level, and "free" emergency room care on the local level.

My opinion? I have reasonably good medical coverage through my employer, I'm no fan of socialism, but I believe that universal single payer health coverage is the obvious economic choice, and the sooner the better.

And now, back to the weather. We made it thru winter, and spring is just around the corner...

Total Lunar Eclipse Feb 20

2008-02-17T12:42:00.000-08:00

Wednesday evening, we Earthlings will have a ringside seat to a total lunar eclipse. This will be the 3rd lunar eclipse within a year, but will be much easier to stay up for, as it starts here locally at moonrise (around 6 pm) and ends 3 hours later. The maximum redness of the Earth's shadow on the moon will be between 7 and 8 pm Pacific time. Check it out. Lunar eclipses are one of those "perspective-altering" events that can give us a glimpse of the Much Bigger Picture of which we're all a tiny little part. This is the last lunar eclipse for almost 3 years.

Hopefully the sky will be clear. If not, here's a 1 minute time lapse video of the Aug 2007 lunar eclipse. Note: lunar eclipses are usually not accompanied by such stirring music, unless you provide your own:

So Much For That Poll...

2008-02-07T18:53:00.000-08:00

Thanks a lot, "Mitt". If that is indeed your real name...

When I decided upon a Hood River Weather poll last weekend, it seemed a pretty safe bet to list the "4 leading candidates" as choices. But noooooooo... with Romney's withdrawal from the presidential race today, John McCain appears to have an insurmountable lead on the Republican side. Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul are still in the race, and have lots of supporters, but odds now favor McCain.

Meanwhile, at least the Democratic race remains interesting. I don't think I will do another political poll until the Oregon primary (May 20th). If even then.

January Revisited

2008-02-04T09:36:00.000-08:00

January was another entertaining weather month. Colder, windier, and slightly wetter than average, January had enough variable weather to satisfy even the most jaded weather junkie.

January's average temperature was 1.5 degrees cooler than long term averages, and 4.5 degrees below 2000-2006 averages. Snowfall was 23.5 inches, well above the historical average of 14.4 inches. Much higher snow amounts were recorded in the middle and upper valleys. Wind speeds were above average, with WSW winds predominate. That's unusual for January; east winds usually prevail. There were no depressing extended inversion events during the month, continuing this winter's very welcome "no-inversion" pattern.

There were 2 local weather records set in January. 15 inches of snow fell on January 26, breaking the old record for the date of 9 inches (1933). And, in a unofficial record, the barometer dipped to 28.91 inches on January 4th. The previous low baro at our station was 28.94 in 2002.

	High	Low	Average	Historical Average	Variance
Temperature (F)	49.0	10.0	32.4	33.9	-1.5
Wind (mph)	37		1.9	1.5	0.4
Rainfall (in)	1.16		5.30	5.20	0.10

Record Snow Yesterday?

2008-01-27T08:12:00.000-08:00

Almost certainly. In Hood River, the record snowfall for Jan 26 was 9 inches in 1933. We had 11 inches on our deck at 8 pm last night, and 16 inches this morning at 8 am.

Since snow depth is so variable from place to place, we'll have to wait until the OSU Extension station announces their official snowfall amount before declaring a new record in Hood River for Jan 26.

Today's (Jan 27) record snow was 19.5 inches in 1954. That record is safe. However, new storms are moving through in the next couple of days. With temperatures expected to be around freezing, more record snow is a distinct possibility.

Hood River's highest one day snowfall was 47 inches on Jan 9 (1980), although folks here at the time remember something more like 5 to 7 feet.

Have fun in the snow. Be safe, especially while driving (slow down!) and snow shoveling (take lots of breaks!).

Snow

2008-01-26T16:50:00.000-08:00

After a week of sunny and cold weather, moisture returns. Right now (Saturday 8 pm), it's in the form of snow. Lots of snow. 11 inches and more to come. The temperature, which has dipped to 14 degrees in the past week, is still plenty cold at 27 degrees. The warming trend will be slow over the next few days.

Forecasts are for more precipitation through Tuesday. If past patterns hold true, most will fall in the form of snow, followed by sleet, followed by freezing rain.

For those who like a wide variety of weather, this winter has been great. Hardly any boring cloudy inversion events. And, in a couple more weeks, winter patterns will start changing over to more spring-like patterns.

Feel free to post your local snow amounts here.

Bundle Up

2008-01-20T11:00:00.000-08:00

4:00 pm Sunday afternoon. It's still relatively warm outside at 37 degrees, but a very cold air mass from the northeast is coming our way this evening. This will be our first arctic breakout of the winter, but not at all unusual for January. Expect low temperatures over the next 4 days in the mid teens and maybe lower. In these type of events, we'll have east winds of 5 to 10 mph while Portland on the other end of the Gorge will have 50+ mph east winds. Brrrrr!

However, no chance of breaking any local all time cold records this week, as low temperatures in 1930 at this time in January were in the -15 to -20 range.

The Hood River Weather poll this week attempts to be topical with the question "how do you heat your home?" We have a natural gas furnace, supplemented occasionally with a wood stove. I've lived in 6 different houses here since 1976, and this combination of heating along with a pretty tight house is the best ever. Still, winter heating bills just keep climbing. It doesn't seem to matter that we use the same or fewer therms or KW hours, since the cost per unit continues to climb.

Oh, by the way, I replaced the outside temperature sensor late last week, and the occasional "extremely high temperature" reading problem hasn't reoccurred. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Is This Unusual Or What

2008-01-17T14:38:00.000-08:00

January 17th. The middle of winter. Clear outside with very strong west winds. So what is wrong with this picture?

Nothing. It's absolutely beautiful out. But... this is VERY unusual weather for this time of the year. Typically, we would be in the cold inversion foggy east wind pattern, and Portland would be sunny. But it's exactly the opposite right now. Strong west winds, relatively warm at 40 degrees. This more resembles an early March weather pattern. How great is this??

Here's the Portland fog/cloud layer today that has stopped just west of Hood River:

And here's our view today of Mt Adams, a volcano about 40 miles due north, in all its snow covered glory (12,300 ft high):

Space Exploration

2008-01-13T19:51:00.000-08:00

This week's poll on the Hood River Weather site asks what our space exploration priorities should be, given the budget realities.

My opinion? For the immediate future, we should be focusing on the much less expensive option of using unmanned spacecraft to explore the planets, asteroids, and comets. The return on investment in science and exploration that unmanned missions provide is way more than that of manned missions.

In the very long run, if we are to survive as a species, we will eventually need to colonize further out from the Sun, to Mars and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Our Sun, being a type G star, will become warmer at a rate that will make life on Earth impossible after another 300 million years or so.

We have plenty of time. In order to not repeat the Apollo program's short life, it would be better to have robotic missions build permanent bases on Mars and beyond before we send humans there. That way, we can go there to stay, not just do a few missions like Apollo and then quit.

Does It Feel Like 129 Degrees To You?

2008-01-09T18:27:00.000-08:00

Me neither. But that's what our wireless outside temperature sensor is currently indicating. So, after calling the Davis Vantage Pro weather station support folks, their verdict is that the sensor has failed, and for a mere $70 they will be happy to send me a replacement.

Unfortunately, it won't be here until next Tuesday. And then, depending on my ability to install the new sensor in the driving rain or snow or sub zero temperatures, not to mention that I am working during most of the daylight hours, I might have it functioning by next Wednesday. Or Thursday. Maybe.

Until then, you can view other local area weather stations' current temperature data here.

Snow

2008-01-08T06:38:00.000-08:00

4 inches of snow on the deck here in west Hood River at 6:30 am, and probably more to come.

Feel free to post your own snow amounts here.

Update: 5:30 pm, snowing all day but melting and packing down. 6 inches accumulation on deck.

2007 Revisited

2008-01-07T18:45:00.000-08:00

I just finished crunching the numbers for the entire year of 2007:

2007's average temperature was 52.7 degrees F, 2.0 degrees warmer than long term averages. However, it was only 0.1 degrees warmer than 2000-2006 averages. In that recent time period, 2003 has been the warmest year at 53.8 degrees F.

Precipitation was an inch above average. Wind speeds for the year averaged 3.0 mph, compared to the 2000-2006 average of 3.4 mph.

There were 2 high temperature records, and 11 "high low" temperature records set in 2007.

	High	Low	Average	Historical Average	Variance
Temperature (F)	104.6	9.3	52.7	50.7	2.0
Wind (mph)	37		3.0	3.4	-0.4
Rainfall (in)	1.86		29.05	30.03	-0.98
Barometric (in Hg)	30.78	29.49

UFOs?

2008-01-06T13:20:00.000-08:00

The Hood River Weather site has featured a weekly poll for over a year now, and it's been fun to see how site visitors feel about various issues. One of my 2 blog goals this year is to do a new posting here with each poll, with my personal take on the issue, and y'all can elaborate on yours if you want.

OK, UFO's. In the mid to late 1960's, as a teenager, my fascination with all things skyward and beyond in the Universe prompted me to join two of the civilian UFO research groups in existence at that time: NICAP and APRO. Both groups gathered UFO reports and attempted to impartially separate the explainable sightings from those that would point directly at aliens as the most likely explanation.

I really wanted to believe that we were being visited; that the galaxy was teeming with intelligent space-faring civilizations, some of whom had discovered us here on Earth. After all, Star Trek and numerous science fiction TV and movies had plenty of aliens running around.

But over the years, nothing (including Roswell, alien abductions, and mysterious lights in the sky) has stood out as anything other than natural (and mostly honestly misinterpreted) phenomena. I'm still open to strong confirmable evidence that will irrefutably prove aliens are visiting our backwater section of our galaxy's suburbs. But Fermi's Paradox pretty much sums up my skepticism. Given the age of our galaxy, and the fact that many other solar systems have existed millions of years longer than ours, much older civilizations have had plenty of time to colonize the entire galaxy if that was likely or possible. And it would be obvious. But it's not. In fact, in the EM spectrum, from infrared to ultraviolet, including radio, the galaxy appears to be absent of intelligent signals. Except, of course, our own radio and TV broadcasts, spreading outwards at the speed of light and now in a sphere about 75 light years in diameter from Earth. BTW, for those who would like to participate in the ongoing search for radio wave evidence for intelligent life, I highly recommend running the Seti@home software.

Here's my take on life in the universe: Given that there are likely millions of planets that can support life in the billions of galaxies that exist, molecular and single cell life is probably very common. Multi-cellular organisms (plants and animals) take a lot longer to emerge, and are less common. Intelligent and space-faring life is probably extremely uncommon; the result of an improbable combination of selective events over millions of years of evolution. And, any such civilizations are likely to find the unimaginably immense distances (translate: travel time) between stars insurmountable, assuming they don't become extinct first. Maybe they create intelligent autonomous robotic probes to travel and colonize for them, but... where the heck are they...

So, maybe we are one of some Extremely Isolated Intelligent species in the Universe, which only makes our own human existence even more marvelous and precious and worthy of our best efforts to preserve our planet and not destroy ourselves and our fellow species.

Hopefully this will be the longest post I will ever make in this blog. :)

Oh, my second blog goal this year? Creating another blog focused on vegetable gardening in Hood River (one of my more earthbound interests). Which plants work, which don't, when to plant, successes, failures.... all that stuff. Not sure if I will have the time or motivation to pull it off, but stay tuned.

Low Pressure Record?

2008-01-05T07:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, as a massive storm swept over the West Coast, the barometric pressure dropped to levels usually associated with hurricanes and cyclones. Here at our weather station in Hood River, the barometer bottomed out at 28.91 inches Hg.

I haven't been able to find a barometric pressure historical database for Hood River, but yesterday's reading is the lowest at our station since we started it 10 years ago. The previous low was 28.94 on December 16, 2002.

The Columbia River Gorge is well known for its high winds, but an odd characteristic of most of these extreme winter west coast windstorms is that the Gorge (especially around Hood River) stays remarkably wind-free. The winds yesterday were calm with a peak "gust" of 7 mph. For some reason, the pressure differential from Portland to The Dalles stays pretty much flat in these storms, and therefore little wind occurs here.

Is anyone aware of any historical barometric databases for Hood River? Any observations from your own barometers from yesterday?