What happened on Wednesday December 12, 2010 in Portland reminds me of college. I would go into a two hour lecture in shorts with temperatures of 70 degrees. Then I’d come out and it was windy and 50 degrees.  Rapid temperature changes like that are rare in the Willamette Valley. But they happened Wednesday.
Wind Caused Rare Temperature SpikeÂ
Portland temperatures stayed in the 30s all morning and at 10am we still were stuck at 37 degrees. The east wind was blowing which is like leaving the freezer door open. But check out the graphic here. By 11am Portland’s temperature spiked to 51. That’s a 14 degree jump in just one hour!
The only factor at work? The east wind got shoved out of the way by gusty sound wind that carried a nearly instant burst of warm air into our area. The freezer door was shut and now the space heater was on full blast!
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