June (July) 2020 Weather Discussion for the PNW

[MossMan]

Heavy duty drizzle currently.

[TigerWoodsLibido]

Would love to relive a good old fashioned PNW winter like that in my lifetime.

We will.

[Deweydog]

It’s July 9th.

[Jesse]

[Jesse]

[Jesse]

76/55 here today. Some sprinkles at times early, giving away to partly cloudy skies later. Very pretty day.

[TigerWoodsLibido]

2016-17 was better in some ways for western OR.

It was pretty good. Spread the wealth around in the snow dept but there wasn’t anything top-tier like that Nov 1955 stretch.

[BLI snowman]

2016-17 was better in some ways for western OR.

 

 

Nah, 1955-56 was definitely a superior winter for pretty much everyone south of Lynden.

[MossMan]

Up to .25” on the day.

55 degrees.

[snow_wizard]

Nah, 1955-56 was definitely a superior winter for pretty much everyone south of Lynden.

That was a really solid winter.  It was outstanding for having cold / snow throughout the winter.  For this area the February event was quite solid and of course November was insane.

[snow_wizard]

The latest GFS shows 850s dropping to 3 early next week.  That is really chilly for post July 10.

[Front Ranger]

Nah, 1955-56 was definitely a superior winter for pretty much everyone south of Lynden.

 

2016-17 had more snow for parts of western OR. Snow matters to some people.

[Phil]

The latest GFS shows 850s dropping to 3 early next week. That is really chilly for post July 10.

PNW tourism is gonna skyrocket if that GFS run even comes close to verifying. Everyone else roasts.

 

Like, this is legit scary.

 

[BLI snowman]

2016-17 had more snow for parts of western OR. Snow matters to some people.

 

Which parts? 

 

I believe virtually every single station had more snow in 1955-56. In fact, it was pretty much objectively a snowier winter in western OR with more measurable snow events and more measurable snowfall. Facts are important.

[Phil]

There was certainly a stronger GOA block in 1955/56 compared to 2016/17.

 

I’ll leave the surface/boundary layer details to you guys, obviously.

[Deweydog]

2016-17 had more snow for parts of western OR. Snow matters to some people.

White precip matters.

[Front Ranger]

Which parts? 

 

I believe virtually every single station had more snow in 1955-56. In fact, it was pretty much objectively a snowier winter in western OR with more measurable snow events and more measurable snowfall. Facts are important.

 

The Salem area, for one. My brother who lived there measured over 20" of snow that winter, with 4-5 significant snow events.

 

Sadly, there are few long term stations where you can actually make a direct comparison in that region, but SLE had 15" in 1955-56.

[Front Ranger]

PNW tourism is gonna skyrocket if that GFS run even comes close to verifying. Everyone else roasts.

 

Like, this is legit scary.

 

 

Just what everyone wants during a pandemic - skyrocketing tourism!

[BLI snowman]

The Salem area, for one. My brother who lived there measured over 20" of snow that winter, with 4-5 significant snow events.

 

Sadly, there are few long term stations where you can actually make a direct comparison in that region, but SLE had 15" in 1955-56.

 

SLE itself did not have 15" of snow in 2016-17. They had perhaps 6" in December, 3" in January, and 2" in March. 1955-56 was snowier there.

 

Ashland, Medford, Grants Pass, Roseburg, Cottage Grove, Eugene, Corvallis, and the entire Portland metro/northern valley also had more in 1955-56. Suburban areas around Portland actually had 40"+ that winter. It was a very snowy winter across much of western OR.

[Front Ranger]

SLE itself did not have 15" of snow in 2016-17. They had perhaps 6" in December, 3" in January, and 2" in March. 1955-56 was snowier there.

 

Ashland, Medford, Grants Pass, Roseburg, Cottage Grove, Eugene, Corvallis, and the entire Portland metro/northern valley also had more in 1955-56. Suburban areas around Portland actually had 40"+ that winter. It was a very snowy winter across much of western OR.

 

Forest Grove is not representative of suburban Portland. 

[BLI snowman]

Forest Grove is not representative of suburban Portland. 

 

Forest Grove is literally a suburb of Portland. And depending on the pattern they can be snowier or less snowy than other parts of suburban Portland, like here 

 

And are you seriously trying to dispute that 1955-56 was a very snowy winter around here? 

[TigerWoodsLibido]

Forest Grove does really well in the cold air damming situations like most of the north valley down to about Monmouth.

[BLI snowman]

Forest Grove does really well in the cold air damming situations like most of the north valley down to about Monmouth.

 

Yep, and there are other situations (shallow gorge outflow, westerly flow) where they don't do as well as some other areas.

 

Flatiron seems to be under the impression that the outer suburbs of Portland all mimic PDX, which is literally at sea level.

 

Western Washington County, Columbia County, Clark County, and Gresham/Troutdale all do a decent amount better than PDX and the southern suburbs (Milwaukie, Oregon City, Tigard) do.

[Anti Marine Layer]

It was 55 in Morro Bay this afternoon, but that's not unusual, especially on days when Paso Robles less than an hour away, is 105. Great thing about the PNW and California is you can always go to the coast to escape the inland heat.

[Phil]

[Farmboy]

The latest GFS shows 850s dropping to 3 early next week.  That is really chilly for post July 10.

It really is the year without a summer!!! Wow... Never would have thought this would happen in my lifetime and yet here we are seeing it unfold firsthand...

[TigerWoodsLibido]

This summer feels pretty normal to me so far. Like the ones before 2013.

[TacomaWaWx]

69/57 0.03” today. Nice evening currently.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

No thanks.

But it’s a dry heat!

[Phil]

It really is the year without a summer!!! Wow... Never would have thought this would happen in my lifetime and yet here we are seeing it unfold firsthand...

Maybe you should move to Phoenix or the Gulf Coast?

[Anti Marine Layer]

PNW tourism is gonna skyrocket if that GFS run even comes close to verifying. Everyone else roasts.

Like, this is legit scary.

Looks similar to 2010 when most of the nation had record heat and half the days of summer in Oceanside set record low maximums. Sea surface temperatures stayed springlike all summer, and San Diego actually averaged below 70 for the high in July. However, Downtown L.A. set its record highest temperature in history of 113 F on September 27 that year. Then on November 4, San Diego reached 100 degrees, whicb was the hottest day of the year and first time to reach triple digits in nearly 20 years.

[TacomaWaWx]

Still not much sign of any significant heat the next 7-10 days. Eventually it’ll happen though.

[Front Ranger]

Forest Grove is literally a suburb of Portland. And depending on the pattern they can be snowier or less snowy than other parts of suburban Portland, like here 

 

And are you seriously trying to dispute that 1955-56 was a very snowy winter around here? 

 

I'm saying it was an outlier in 1955-56. Which it was.

[Phil]

Still not much sign of any significant heat the next 7-10 days. Eventually it’ll happen though.

Maybe this will be the West Coast version of our “cool” summer back in 2009. Low/mid 80s every day until mid/late-August. Then the heat arrived, of course, but it was much shorter lived than usual. Flipped to autumn in early October that year.

[Requiem]

The winter of 1979-80 has always been fascinating to me. I'm not quite sure how good the rest of the season was, the but the storm in January that dropped feet upon feet of snow over NW Oregon I think made that entire season (at least north of Salem, that is). Interesting storm-- I believe total singe storm snowfall was somewhere near an absurd 75 inches for Hood River.

[BLI snowman]

I'm saying it was an outlier in 1955-56. Which it was.

 

Downtown Portland had 24.4" of snow in 1955-56. I know from living out here for a long time that I typically get 175-200% of what they get on average. And the Forest Grove station has the most thorough and accurate snowfall data from suburban Portland before the 1970s. The other stations are mostly hit/miss junk.

 

I know it bothers you that that winter was snowier around here   A wise man told me that snow matters to some people, though.

[Front Ranger]

Maybe this will be the West Coast version of our “cool” summer back in 2009. Low/mid 80s every day until mid/late-August. Then the heat arrived, of course, but it was much shorter lived than usual. Flipped to autumn in early October that year.

 

2009 was a glorious summer here as well. That year, 2011 (tons of storms), and 2015 are my three favorite summers here.

[MossMan]

Heard it was Seattle’s coolest start to July since 2002!

 

Up to .27” on the day.

[BLI snowman]

Maybe this will be the West Coast version of our “cool” summer back in 2009. Low/mid 80s every day until mid/late-August. Then the heat arrived, of course, but it was much shorter lived than usual. Flipped to autumn in early October that year.

 

I was in D.C. in mid August 2009. I think it was 97 the day I was doing the Mall.

 

Snowed a lot there a few months later!

[Jesse]

Looks like a good chunk of Failshington county south and east of Hillsboro is getting a decent pop up shower this evening.