By Rod Hill on 2015-01-19
Weekend rainfall sets daily record at PDX and keeps Portland on track for a normal water year. Saturday's rainfall of 1.80" was the 2nd wettest day of this water year, only behind the 1.88" that fell on October 22nd.
Of course precipitation news is not as good on Mt. Hood. Mostly rain over the weekend has left the Mt. Hood snowpack at 42% of average for the date. Meadows reports 5" of new snow this morning with 38 inches of snow at their lodge and 71 inches mid-mountain. At 4,000 feet, Skibowl only has the few inches from last night on the front slope.
Forecast outlooks show high confidence of a drier and warmer than normal February. If true, the Cascade snowpack will need a 200% of normal March to finish with a decent snowpack. The first map shows above normal February temperatures predicted, shaded in brown. The 2nd map shows a classic El Nino flow pattern with rainy weather over Texas, shown in green and below normal rainfall next month over the Northwest.
Recent years have shown a trend of very wet spring months which gives hope of good water storage in the mountains.
Meteorologist Rod Hill, follow me @
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