September 2018 Weather in the Pacific Northwest

[Farmboy]

Some pretty deep troughing being shown in the clown ranges on today's GFS runs, most notably the 12z and the 18z.  Looks like Novembers' right around the corner.

[Jesse]

Pee-Dee-X flirting with 70! Makes sense with the warm airmass overhead today.

[Deweydog]

Ugh. Despite the uptick in rainfall the past several days I continue to see more and more trees with discoloring, dying leaves. I'm about to lose it.

[BLI snowman]

Ugh. Despite the uptick in rainfall the past several days I continue to see more and more trees with discoloring, dying leaves. I'm about to lose it.

Haha, it's actually now almost fall which is the same time the leaves are changing organically!

[TigerWoodsLibido]

[BLI snowman]

I still have nightmares about the heavy rains of late September 2013 when I look at the models this time of year.

 

And sadly in a few weeks my October 2016 related PTRD (post-traumatic rain disorder) will kick in.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

SLE and EUG only hit 67 today. Surprised to see PDX hit 70.

 

Only up to 60 here today. 60/49 with 0.52" of rain.

[Deweydog]

Haha, it's actually now almost fall which is the same time the leaves are changing organically!

Haha! Fight haha with haha!

[TT-SEA]

I still have nightmares about the heavy rains of late September 2013 when I look at the models this time of year.

 

And sadly in a few weeks my October 2016 related PTRD (post-traumatic rain disorder) will kick in.

October 2016 was a real mess for us in King County... one single day in the month without rain.

 

1 frickin day in October without rain.

 

That is just stupid. And depressing.

 

Might need to move... or find a second home in Hawaii or Palm Desert.

[TT-SEA]

October 12th was the magical day in 2016.

 

Then we had almost 4 inches of the rain the next 2 days as punishment for the single dry day that month.

[Jesse]

SLE and EUG only hit 67 today. Surprised to see PDX hit 70.

 

Only up to 60 here today. 60/49 with 0.52" of rain.

Cutoff in clouds and precip, along with some dry air advection, happened to line up with the late afternoon insolation maxima.

 

They are PDX so that accounts for an extra degree or two. But even VUO hit 69.

[Farmboy]

October 2016 was a real mess for us in King County... one single day in the month without rain.

 

1 frickin day in October without rain.

 

That is just stupid. And depressing.

 

Might need to move... or find a second home in Hawaii or Palm Desert.

 

 

Adding insult to injury, it was about as depressing as watching Portland get all the snow that December and January.  

 

 

Yeah there was some snow in February, blah, blah, blah....

[Deweydog]

Today turned upsetting in a hurry.

[Jesse]

Today turned upsetting in a hurry.

What happened?

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Remember that terrible winter of 2016-17 when PDX  and Sea-Tac officially had the exact same amount of snow!

[El_Nina]

How did the Seattle area fair during the late February event this year?

[SilverFallsAndrew]

How did the Seattle area fair during the late February event this year?

 

1" official at Sea Tac

[TigerWoodsLibido]

[Deweydog]

What happened?

Somebody got food poisoning at the PDX Henry's.

[Farmboy]

How did the Seattle area fair during the late February event this year?

 

 

Wouldn't exactly call that an 'event' as in something memorable.  Undoubtedly would've achieved 'event status' in Orlando, Florida...

[TigerWoodsLibido]

[Farmboy]

Remember that terrible winter of 2016-17 when PDX  and Sea-Tac officially had the exact same amount of snow!

 

 

I highly doubt that's true.  The winter up here wasn't worth writing news articles about like the ones written about Portland that winter... At least in the eyes of the media...

 

https://www.oregonlive.com/weather/index.ssf/2017/02/oregons_winter_of_2016-17_wont.html

 

https://weather.com/storms/winter/news/portland-oregon-worst-winter-city-2016-2017

[Jesse]

Somebody got food poisoning at the PDX Henry's.

Could have just been indigestion from seeing those kontest skores.

[Deweydog]

Could have just been indigestion from seeing those kontest skores.

I heard someone got a 70. Ugh.

[Phil]

[SilverFallsAndrew]

I highly doubt that's true.  The winter up here wasn't worth writing news articles about like the ones written about Portland that winter... At least in the eyes of the media...

 

https://www.oregonlive.com/weather/index.ssf/2017/02/oregons_winter_of_2016-17_wont.html

 

https://weather.com/storms/winter/news/portland-oregon-worst-winter-city-2016-2017

 

Despite hyperbolic media accounts...

 

[Farmboy]

Despite hyperbolic media accounts...

 

 

 

That was at the airports.  Seattle's total was from one storm that was soon washed away by rain, whereas Portland had their snow spread throughout the winter.

 

Named Winter Storms That Impacted Portland, Oregon, December 2016 - January 17, 2017 Caly (Dec. 8, 2016) 1 inch snow, 0.75 inch ice Decima (Dec. 14, 2016) 2.3 inches snow (also, major Eugene, Oregon, ice storm) Iras (Jan. 7-8, 2017) 0.4 inches snow; 0.5 inch ice Jupiter (Jan. 10-11, 2017) Up to 15.5 inches in metro Kori (Jan. 17, 2017) At least 0.3 inch ice

 

 

19.5 inches by the amounts listed above, a different location other than the airport, not sure where, downtown maybe?

[SilverFallsAndrew]

2016/17

 

PDX

12/8: 0.5"

12/14: 2.3"

1/7: 0.4"

1/10: 6.5"

1/11: 1.5"

Total: 11.2"

DJF: -4.7 temperature departure.

 

Sea

12/8: 0.5"

12/9: 0.5"

1/1: 3.0"

2/5: 2.0"

2/6: 5.1"

2/27: 0.1"

Total: 11.2" 

DJF: -2.9 temperature departure. 

[snow_wizard]

Wouldn't exactly call that an 'event' as in something memorable.  Undoubtedly would've achieved 'event status' in Orlando, Florida...

 

The Christmas snow was pretty awesome last winter though.  We had over 4 inches with that one.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

That was at the airports.  Seattle's total was from one storm that was soon washed away by rain, whereas Portland had their snow spread throughout the winter.

 

Named Winter Storms That Impacted Portland, Oregon, December 2016 - January 17, 2017 Caly (Dec. 8, 2016) 1 inch snow, 0.75 inch ice Decima (Dec. 14, 2016) 2.3 inches snow (also, major Eugene, Oregon, ice storm) Iras (Jan. 7-8, 2017) 0.4 inches snow; 0.5 inch ice Jupiter (Jan. 10-11, 2017) Up to 15.5 inches in metro Kori (Jan. 17, 2017) At least 0.3 inch ice

 

 

19.5 inches by the amounts listed above, a different location other than the airport, not sure where, downtown maybe?

 

Though many locations saw more than the 8" recorded at the NWS office with the January 10/11 storm, most areas did not see 15.5". 

 

The 12/14 storm impacted Salem more than PDX, the 1/7 storm impacted Salem and EUG more than PDX, and the 12/8 event was more of an ice event, especially in ice favored locales. There were a lot of storms during the winter of 2016-17, but most were not widespread events. There was another storm 1/4/17 that had a major impact from about Redding to Eugene. 

[snow_wizard]

Totally clear here now with a temp of 56.  Should get nippy tonight.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

The Christmas snow was pretty awesome last winter though.  We had over 4 inches with that one.

 

Forgot about that one since it was pretty much a PDX north event. PDX had 1" with that, SEA officially 2.6". 

 

PDX was the clear winner during the winter of 2017-18, however. 

 

PDX: 7.6"

SEA: 3.6"

[Farmboy]

2016/17

 

PDX

12/8: 0.5"

12/14: 2.3"

1/7: 0.4"

1/10: 6.5"

1/11: 1.5"

Total: 11.2"

DJF: -4.7 temperature departure.

 

Sea

12/8: 0.5"

12/9: 0.5"

1/1: 3.0"

2/5: 2.0"

2/6: 5.1"

2/27: 0.1"

Total: 11.2" 

DJF: -2.9 temperature departure. 

 

 

Lots of places around Portland had +15" with the January 10th storm..  I actually was in Arizona for half of January and most of February, so I only remember December up to January 11.  I drove through Portland during that storm, crossed the I-205 bridge just minutes after sunset, quite the seen...

[SilverFallsAndrew]

While we are talking snow. PDX actually saw slightly more snow in the first decade of the 2000s as they did in the 1990s (Thanks 2008-09!). This was the first decade since the 1950s that saw an increase from the previous one at PDX. PDX has 33" so far this decade, so they need 11.6" in the next two winters to top the previous decade.

 

2010-11: 1.8"

2011-12: 3.1"

2012-13: 0

2013-14: 8"

2014-15: 0

2015-16: 1.3"

2016-17: 11.2"

2017-18: 7.6"

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Lots of places around Portland had +15" with the January 10th storm..  I actually was in Arizona for half of January and most of February, so I only remember December up to January 11.  I drove through Portland during that storm, crossed the I-205 bridge just minutes after sunset, quite the seen...

 

It was obviously a great event Seattle missed out on, and then PDX scored incredibly with cold outflow for about the next week. And Seattle had a 7" snow event in February that PDX missed out on. I understand that was slushy snow, but I also know a lot of places in the SW Interior of WA did even better than Seattle with that one. 

 

2016-17 was clearly better at PDX than Seattle, but I would say Seattle did as well as most lowland locations in Western Oregon overall that winter, PDX excluded. And it was easily the best winter Seattle has seen since 2010-11 and maybe even 2008-09.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Lots of places around Portland had +15" with the January 10th storm..  I actually was in Arizona for half of January and most of February, so I only remember December up to January 11.  I drove through Portland during that storm, crossed the I-205 bridge just minutes after sunset, quite the seen...

 

Let's look at the facts. Downtown did have 13", the Airport had a bit less than the official total from the NWS office. Most totals look to be in the 8-12 range in the immediate metro area. 

 

[Farmboy]

It was obviously a great event Seattle missed out on, and then PDX scored incredibly with cold outflow for about the next week. And Seattle had a 7" snow event in February that PDX missed out on. I understand that was slushy snow, but I also know a lot of places in the SW Interior of WA did even better than Seattle with that one. 

 

2016-17 was clearly better at PDX than Seattle, but I would say Seattle did as well as most lowland locations in Western Oregon overall that winter, PDX excluded. And it was easily the best winter Seattle has seen since 2010-11 and maybe even 2008-09.

 

 

All I remember is reading Scott Sistek's writeup bitching about how Seattle missed out on all the December snow, then driving through that gorgeous winter wonderland from about Napavine, WA to Tualatin, OR.  I remember it being nice and powdery places north of Powell, then turned wetter as I got closer to Clackamas town center... 

[Farmboy]

Let's look at the facts. Downtown did have 13", the Airport had a bit less than the official total from the NWS office. Most totals look to be in the 8-12 range in the immediate metro area. 

 

 

 

I stopped at a Burgerville off of 205 & Powell or Division, it seemed there was close to a foot.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

An interesting blog post from Mark. Fire season in the PNW was much less impactful this year compared to last year. Acreage burned was 700,000 down from 1,100,000 last year. He says we got lucky with a timely start to fall. 

 

Who got lucky in our area?

There were no major fires across most of NE Oregon, the northern Oregon Cascades, all of NW Oregon, and all of SW Washington.  As of this moment total acreage burned across the Pacific Northwest is significantly DOWN from last year as well…around 700,000 acres vs 1,100,000 or so last year.

Considering late spring and early summer was the driest or 2nd driest on record in our area I think we were very lucky.  It’s most likely due to lack of lightning.  For a second season it seems we had very little thunderstorm action both in the mountains and down here in the lowlands.  I don’t have the stats to back that up (yet), but I’ll find them eventually.

[BLI snowman]

October 2016 was a real mess for us in King County... one single day in the month without rain.

 

1 frickin day in October without rain.

 

That is just stupid. And depressing.

 

Might need to move... or find a second home in Hawaii or Palm Desert.

Led to a nice winter.