wx_statman

3rd behind 2015 (#1) and 1958 (#2), and 0.3 from the record. A little too much of north-south gradient this year. 2015 was king for most of the Puget Sound!

That was fast!

Pretty crazy that Salem and Eugene have averaged over 90 for a high over the past 2 months. I rounded up some stats this morning for the last 60 days - Portland, Salem, and Eugene had their hottest 60-day average tmax (for any 60-day period), and in all three cases by about 2 degrees hotter than the previous record.

Officially 100 at Bellingham. You can tell by looking at the METARs in international units. Reported temperature of 38C = at least 37.5C, which means at least 99.5F.

Yeah. At least 98 now.

They broke it. Previously 69 in 2014 and yesterday.

4th time they've tied/broken their 1949-2007 all-time record (94 in August 1960), since 2007. 94 in July 2007 96 in July 2009 99 in June 2021 94 so far in Aug 2021

I think there's definitely some influence there. I saw an interesting study about last September's amplified pattern that caused our downslope windstorm on Labor Day. They linked this amplification to 3 typhoons that recurved over the Korean peninsula in the span of 12 days and really juiced the wavetrain. "Three Western Pacific Typhoons Strengthened Fire Weather in the Recent Northwest U.S. Conflagration" https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2020GL091430 ""The weather pattern that contributed to rapidly spreading fires in Oregon in early September 2020 can be traced back to an unexpected source: Three typhoons in the western Pacific that ran into the Korean Peninsula within two weeks of each other. Together, Typhoon Bavi, Typhoon Maysak, and Typhoon Haishen each contained enough energy to perturb the jet stream – creating an atmospheric wave train that enhanced the hot, dry weather of the western United States. This study uses forecast models and weather observations to show that these typhoons amplified areas of high and low pressure in North America leading to the intense winds which rapidly spread fire in Oregon, Washington, and California. While the impacts of climate change on these events were not evaluated in this study, the implication is that the effect of weather extremes that are known to be exasperated by climate warming are not always limited to the region in which those extremes occur.""

Thought you guys might appreciate this - I downloaded station data from GHCN-D and looked at all of the all-time record highs set or tied in 2021. Then I made a map of the margins by which all-time record highs were broken. We already knew the June heat wave was insane, but I think this map really shows it. Many all-time records broken by 4-13 degrees F across western OR/WA, southern BC and into Alberta. Some of the largest margins are (location/2021 maximum/previous all-time record): -Simonette, AB (108/95) -Kamloops, BC (117/105) -Quillayute, WA (110/99) -Summerland, BC (113/102) -Alberni Robertson Creek, BC (114/104) *on Vancouver Island! -Salem, OR (117/108) -Portland, OR (116/107) -Mazama, WA (112/103) -Burnaby Simon Fraser University, BC (103/94)

Oh interesting, I wasn't aware of those. Yeah not surprised about some of these DOT stations. I saw one of the Seattle newspapers also reported 119F at a couple stations in the Chelan Valley. Lots of candidates for the state record it seems.

Looks like NWS Spokane will investigate the 123F reading at Alpowa Creek HADS automated station in eastern WA last Tuesday (June 29th). My guess is that it's a bit overexposed, but it will be interesting to find out.

So, it looks like Pelton Dam hit 119° yesterday. This would tie the official state record for Oregon set in Pendleton and Prineville in 1898 (dubious as those readings are). Of course the Pelton Dam reading would need to be verified to be made official.

For what it's worth, McMinnville's records from the 1920s are pretty unreliable. Most likely either an over-exposed thermometer or a dishonest observer (both of which used to happen). It's very unlikely they reached 110 during three straight years (1924, 1925, 1926) which is what their records show.

PDX sitting above the previous state record high for June (113 at Pelton Dam in 1992... in the desert). Previous to 2021 anyway. Some places were already above that yesterday.

Fun fact: Salem now has the same all-time record high as Los Angeles (113F).