January 2012 is outta here!
For Portland–and many other places–the most exciting thing was a chance to finally see some accumulating snow.
As usual, though, we basically got the snow to stick to the lowest elevations in Portland and then melted it all away within a 12 hour window. At least we had 2.3″ in the process.
Another case of ‘Keep Portland Weird?’ — just maybe! If we see it in a Portlandia episode we’ll know for sure.
It Rained On More Than 60% Of Portland Days In January 2012
 60% of the days were also wet for Astoria, Eugene and Salem–and everywhere west of the Cascades in our part of Oregon and Southwest Washington.
Most amazing to me is what happened in the Central Willamette Valley, including Salem. Salem, Oregon had 173% of average rainfall in January 2012. The Salem rain total was almost the same as Astoria. That is exceedingly rare that a spot in the Willamette Valley will rival a coastal city for rain totals in the winter months. No wonder that part of the Willamette Valley saw so much flooding.
Here’s the month in review–in pictures. Most of the month’s newsworthy weather happened in a single week! And Oregon ski resorts ended the month close to average for snow pack–and ahead many other ski areas around the country when it comes to snow. Mt. Hood’s snow pack was official 89% of average to finish the month. Statewide snow pack was 73% of average. So we have more catching up to do.
Now, it’s on to February…
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