Recognize this thing?
It’s my favorite hoodie.
But you’d never know it because it basically hung in my closet all summer without being worn!
That’s just one of the signs that 2014 was an epic summer for Oregon and Washington.
And we took that summer all the way to the end, didn’t we? Portland had highs 0f 94 and 87 during the season’s final full days. A warm east wind made it happen at a time when our average high is just 75! Even the coast had east wind with many cities warming  into the upper 80s.
Days earlier, on September 11, 2014, an unusually powerful east wind event powered by record cold air hitting the Dakotas and northern Rockies created gusts of 44mph for Portland, 55mph for Timberline Lodge and 66mph at Crown Point in the Columbia River Gorge.Â
Now, take a short trip with me into the highlights section of summer 2014. And bookmark this story so you can reminisce about it all sometime in mid-November.
Summer 2014 - The Facts On Heat
After we got through a soggy end of June (so typical!) the summer heat was consistent but not really extreme for most of us. Portland hit 99 degrees on July 1st and again on August 11 but skipped triple digits this summer. We made up for that by having so many days in the 90s.
Portland 2014 – 21 days at 90 or hotter – we almost caught the record of 23 days set in 2009 — average of 12 days
Eugene 2014 – 35 days at 90 or hotter – record breaking as it tops old record of 31 days in 1958 — average of 15 days
 
Now this is a switch! We’re usually the ones in the blue but this year we are standouts because of heat. Oregon and Washington had their 4th warmest June-August on record. California its 2nd warmest. This map is based on 120 years of records and Oregon, for example, was warmer than 116 of those years. That’s what the numbers mean.
Even more amazing is the way our low temperatures shaped up this summer. I recently wrote about our record warm nights which are reflected in the map below.
 Summer 2014 Rain And Storms
We had close to average rainfall during summer 2014 but it fell on fewer rainy days than is typical. That means when storms did hit this summer, we went big!Â
 One example was the incredible hail storm that hit Sunriver, Oregon. Check it out.
July 23rd was a great example of going big in the rain department for areas west of the Cascades. Check out these new daily records:Â
- Astoria .82″ (old record .42″ 1952)
- Portland .62″ (old record .06″ 1959)
- Vancouver .52″ (old record .47″ 1918)
- Eugene .21″ (old record .17″ 1918)
- Hood River .42″ (old record .15 1936)
We also had record low highs many places on July 23rd. Portland topped out at 68. But this is the only record ‘cool’ temp that I believe we had all summer. The rest of the time it felt like we were living in a dream. One that lasted a full three months this time!
Now it’s fall. And I’m excited to get re-aquainted with my favorite hoody again.
But before that happens, will you let me know what it was you noticed most about the weather during summer 2014?Â
Great job my friend!
Thank you, Craig! Great hearing from you. Bruce.
We live in Seal Rock, 1/2 mile from the ocean. We noticed our relatives in Salem had a real lot of very hot weather this summer. We noticed a warmer, sunnier summer here on the coast as well, but with a lot of that cold wind. As the valley gets warmer we get that cold July wind. I don’t think there was as much fog this year during July. It seemed drier. This fall has been wonderful with a lot of sun on our garden. This fall weather seems dry but pretty usual. This storm today seems early. I have been watching for a blog. My brother and were wanting a prognostication of what this winter will bring. He is in Dayton, Nevada, near Carson City. We are curious about if this will be a colder winter and dry again. The geese are early on the Carson River.
Linda-
Thanks for sharing your observations about summer! I will look into fall and winter and let you know when I come up with something good!
Bruce
we miss you on the news and want to know what happened to Kelly we miss her too not the same news channel anymore we watch other news always have watched channel six but now we watch twelve or two
Sarah:
Thank you so much for your post. I hope you have a great fall!
Bruce
Hi Bruce; Summer 2014 goes into my books as the warmest summer here on record. Not only for the warm nights, but we had 37 days from June 21-Sept.21 with maximums at or above 80.0F. Compare that with just 24 days in 2009 and 22 in 2013, and it’s obvious why it felt so warm around here this past season.
Bruce, we miss seeing you on the news. KOIN is one of my least favorite channels, and I watched only for your forecasts. Best of luck to you in any new endeavor.
Summer was a bit too warm for me, kept me inside a lot, garden did do a bit better, so did weeds! Missed having rain now and then to cut down on watering, needed to keep well water up and water pressure ample. In Beavercreek area our weather is not always in sinc with weather in Oregon City, can be a little cooler.