Jeff Taylor

Great article Jeff. Noticed that no mention was made of the incredibly cold month of January 1977. As far as I know, that was the month where the greatest Chesapeake Bay ice extent was experienced, and was written up by Joe Moyer who was the MD State Climatologist at the time, for the Mariners Weather Log. I remembered from my old stats that I had very few days that month of above 32 maximum temps. No day was really extremely cold, it was just persistent below normal, below 32 cold on most days during the month. I sent your link around to others in the area, and many really enjoyed your article – Dave Lesher, John Oravec, and others. Thanks for your great efforts on this very interesting piece.

Thanks for this great collection of data Jeff. It looks really good and complete at my first glance. I will be studying it further as the days go by, and noting any comments about it to you.
Kevin

I also look forward to your analysis and data for the temperatures of these same stations coming soon. Thanks for all your efforts, Kevin

Thanks for the reply, Kevin. It’s certainly been a labor of love working on this historical data for the last 15 or so years. As I continue to format new things to post for Maryland, I would like to start working more fully on the State of Oregon’s historical data.

Awesome post Jeff! I thought local climatological differences in Seattle were huge, but I think they are even bigger in Portland due to the Columbia River Gorge. I’m in Northeast PDX, so we are windier and cooler during gorge outflow events, and our freezing rain lasts far later than downtown.

One thing that would be really interesting is finding the rate at which local differences in weather stations change over the climatological record. I assume it would be greatest in periods of concentrated urbanization around the applicable weather stations.

Thanks for all your hard work, and I look forward to your temperature findings and eventually your Oregon data!

Thanks, Charlie! It’s been interesting learning and observing the local climatological differences here in the Portland area. The Gorge certainly has a huge influence with those strong easterly winds bringing inland colder winter air and warmer summer air. Here in Happy Valley we’re somewhat protected compared to you as the hills tend to block the strongest winds and sinking cold air. Of course, the coastal waters certainly have an impact as well from the other direction.

Another thing I’m interested in finding out is why the Portland Airport (PDX), right on the Columbia River, experiences less precipitation, on average, than other parts of the Metro area (10% or more), even compared to the long-term downtown weather station(s). Local Annual Means for the 1981-2010 period are thus:

PDX: 36.03″
Downtown (KGW-TV): 42.85″
Portland WFO: 43.47″
Hillsboro AP: 39.90″
Oregon City: 44.21″
Troutdale: 46.97″
Beaverton (Nature Park): 40.06″
Vancouver AP: 39.14″
Happy Valley: (no COOP station here but I continually record more, on average)
Is there a valid difference or is there an issue with siting or instrumentation at PDX?

One other thing that interests me here is why we get so much small hail! Prior to moving here, I had never heard or even thought that the Willamette would get much hail at all. In the 3 1/2 years that I’ve been observing here, I have actually observed 25 hail days and 37 separate events (4 events in 1 day and 3 events two other days). I know atmospheric lift is required and I’m assuming the coast, coastal mountains and the Cascades are a major player but I’d like to hear/see an expert explanation from a meteorologist such as yourself!

Great work Jeff. I’m almost sure you spent countless hours building these tables. The color looks great.