Portland’s Warmest March Days In More Than Half A Century Plus Incredible Highs Along The Oregon Coast

There’s always a day each spring when everyone suddenly comes out of ‘hibernation’.

And Saturday March 30, 2013 was definitely that day.

And it was Portland’s hottest March day in almost two decades with a high of 77 degrees, a new record high for the date. As it turns out, Saturday was just for starters.

Here’s the graphic I used on the 11 o’clock news Saturday night. One other fact? Of all the record highs we’ve hit in March, we’ve only reached 77degrees or hotter 4 times at Portland Airport, where records date back to 1940. Impressive.

Why stop in the 70s? Here are the cities that hit 80 degrees in the Portland-Vancouver area on the last Saturday in March 2013. That is so rare.

And anytime I can title a graphic “Cookin’ At The Coast” I take full advantage of it. I mean 78 degrees in Seaside? Why couldn’t that have happened when our family was over there for spring break earlier in the week? Is it the weatherman’s curse? And then there’s Cape Foulweather at 76 degrees. Obviously, NOT named on a day like this!

So how did we get so hot on this March day? I guess you could say we did it in 3 easy steps.

1. The air over the northwest kept getting warmer each day of the week, leading up to Saturday. We officially had our warmest day of the year on Wednesday (65) then Thursday (67) and again on Friday (69 degrees) with partly sunny skies.
2. We had sun from start to finish with no clouds on Saturday. This allowed us to reach the low 70s by itself
3. And then there was the warm breeze from the northeast. This breeze generates heat by itself–separate from what the sun can do–and helps our temperatures reach levels they would not be able to otherwise. In July or August, this type of pattern gets us into the 90s or even triple digits.

But wait, there’s more!

On Sunday March 31, Portland hit 77 degrees for the second day in a row, smashing the old record of 71 from 1987. I just got done going through the records at the Portland Airport. And it turns out these are the warmest back-to-back March days since 1947! That’s right, it’s been more than half a century (actually more than six decades) since Portland’s had to back-to-back March days like this!

After Portland’s wettest March in history during 2012 and a string of wet springs, I’d say we’ve earned something exceptional like this. And based on the fact that every park, trail and outdoor table I passed was packed, it appears we enjoyed it as well.

Here’s to an Easter Weekend we’ll all be talking about for a long time to come. One that fell perfectly on the ‘bridge’ of both Washington’s & Oregon’s Spring Break.