The numbers are in.
And if you’re reading this, then you made it through an entire season on “Rain Island” — you’re a survivor!
The chart here tells the story. 2012 was Portland’s fourth wettest year on record at PDX!
In case you’re wondering–Portland had 10 days in 2012 with more than 1″ of rain. These are the top 5 wettest days.
The year started–and ended–with tons of snow on Mt. Hood. This is a picture from Mt. Hood Meadow’s facebook page, taken December 27, 2012. The resort had a base of 107″ as of that day.
Portland–and much of Oregon and Southwest Washington–experienced a year of extremes. The posts on my facebook weather page went from “will it ever stop raining,” in early July, to “will it ever rain again?” by sometime in September. And rain again it sure did, starting October 9th. It’s like someone was flipping a giant switch in the sky: “on” or “off” with no in-between option!
We had the ‘tiny moon’ in the fall of 2012.
We had a year of surprising views in our Oregon and Washington skies.
And so much more during our Willamette Valley and Oregon Coast weather during 2012. Read on….
Intense Downpours Rip Across The Portland Metro Area
Wind Gusts Like Those From A Category 3 Hurricane
Eeerie Funnel Cloud Spotted From A Fishing Boat On The Columbia River
Oregon & Washington Dodged A Tsunami After A 7.7 Quake Off British Columbia
Record Dry Weather Lead To Incredible Dust Devils In The Willamette Valley
It Happened: Mt. Hood Was 20 Degrees Warmer Than Portland
Extreme Heat – Hey, We Even Topped Phoenix!
Incredible Lightning Path Caught On Camera
Summer In Oregon And Washington Started As A Photographers Dream
The Japan Tsunami Dock Landed On The Oregon Coast Under Blue Skies
Fun Facts: The Coldest high temperature of the year–was on the very last day of the year! That’s right, Portland’s high on New Year’s Eve (December 31, 2012) was just 36 degrees in Portland. The coldest day since December 10, 2011. Also, our first freeze of the fall & winter season was the latest on record for Portland. A morning low of 29 degrees on December 29.
Enough already! You get the idea…it was a great year to talk weather and other earth science related issues! Thanks so much for sharing your interest in these things and walking through all of them together. I really, really appreciate it!
May you and yours have a wonderful 2013.
Happy New Year, Bruce! I was getting all set to tell you how much precipitation I had for 2012, but it seems we will get some rain and/or snow showers before New Year’s Eve! Anyway, just wanted to compare two 80-day periods: July24-Oct.11th, I had a total of 0.51 inches. then from Oct.12-Dec29, there was 27.8 inches. That shows you how variable precipitation on the west coast can be!
Roland–that is such an incredible difference. Thanks so much for sharing those! Was just at the Seahawks game this last weekend–and met some great people from Vancouver Island on the train ride in. Then, sat just behind some really friendly folks from Vancouver. So B.C. was represented very well!
Happy New Year–here’s to more west coast weather fun ahead.
Bruce- those fans came from BC probably because there is no hockey season. In any case, there are quite a few people here who are intrested in the Seahawks. By the way, my total precipitation for 2012 (updated on January 1st) was 60.56 inches. Not no.4 in my list (more like No.12) but still a little wetter than normal.
Hey Bruce,
Here in Astoria we came in just shy of 92 inches of rain for the year. The “average” is 68 inches/year. I haven’t been able to find any information for this area to see where this year fits in with the record rainiest years in history for Astoria and the North Coast. Can you help me? Thanks for the great blog…