Northwest Spring 2011 – Littered With Cool & Wet Weather Records

“Go big or go home!”

That seemed to be the mantra around Oregon and Washington when it came to spring rains that refused to quit. La Nina driven weather patterns kept hanging on.

Until the v-e-r-y-end-of-spring.

This chart to the right is put together by the National Climatic Data Center as part of its report on the spring.

This time, they tracked spring rainfall and every state in dark green had it’s wettest spring in 117 years of records. Congratulations, Washington, you made the cut! Overall, it was Washington State’s wettest spring in history.

The medium shade of green (the one that colors Oregon) indicates a really wet spring–but not the wettest. Oregon, you were so close. This was Oregon’s 2nd wettest spring in 117 years.

All that suffering and still no record? That’s even more frustrating than the weather has been!

Wet Spring Ends On An Unusually Dry Note

We survived a weird winter. Then it was the wet and cold March and  April. May was no better.

But finally, after the first few days of June, we caught a break. And the rains suddenly called it quits – except for a wet Saturday June 18th. Here are rain totals as of June 20th–the last three weeks of spring.

• .63″ Portland, Oregon rainfall, 56% of average 
• 1.13″ Astoria, Oregon rainfall, 64% of average
• .85″ Salem, Oregon rainfall, 83% of average
• .59″ Olympia, Washington rainfall, 48% of average

Just for the record, Seattle was almost dead on for average rainfall the last three weeks of spring 2011. Pretty good for breaking rain records earlier in the year!

We can blame most of this craziness on La Nina and the way it alters the storm track and the flow of cool & warm air. Of course, if you watch KOIN Local 6, you already knew this was coming!

Now, it’s time to turn up the heat around the northwest–are you hoping for a hot summer?