By Rod Hill on 2014-09-24
Today's cloudy, wet weather is perfect for the first full day of fall and a reminder that summer has ended. Despite the talk of a long dry summer, the record book will remember Portland's warm season has typically dry with a little bit of rain. Precipitation totals show only one unusually dry month: June 2.33" - above normal, July 1.05" - above normal, August .01" - one of the driest in history, but not a record and September to date .10", with more rainy days to come.
Days of above normal temperatures and Portland's typical dry season combined for a long and active wildfire season. Portland finished the summer season with no 100 degree temperatures and in fact no daily record high temperatures! What the Rose City did experience was 70 of 94 summer days with above normal temperatures or 74 percent! PDX warmed to 90 degrees 21 days which ties for 4th place all time, behind the 24 days of the record summer of 2009. It is also interesting that Portland's longest streak of 90 degree weather was a mere three days in a row. The numbers fall short of the summer of 2009 when temperatures peaked over 100 degrees several times, including 106 degrees on July 28th & 29th. The mentioned hot streak of 90 degree weather began July 25th and continued for 10 consecutive days!
Still PDX did set temperature records including the warmest August on record in terms of the average low and mean temperatures. July's low and mean temperature averages finished in 4th place all time.
Now that our summer has ended, it is time to dream of fall. Fall outlooks call for above normal temperatures and below normal rainfall through at least the first two weeks of November when taken as a whole.
Happy fall, I hope you enjoy this week's rain and look forward to changing colors.
Meteorologist Rod Hill
Fall begins Monday, Sept. 22nd