Rod's Weather Headlines

By Rod Hill on 2014-07-23

Tuesday rainfall through 4:00 pm has reached .41" at PDX, which is a record amount for the calendar date. Other records include Troutdale where .57" fell and Salem, where .10" was a new record in a usually dry month! An upper low center will pass overhead Wednesday bringing widespread rainfall rea...

Portland Dry Season Has Begun

By Rod Hill on 2014-07-06

With no rain in sight on the forecast models through July 22nd, it appears Portland's summer dry season kicked-off back on June 30th, after seeing more than 1.25 inches of rain over a 10 day stretch. Natives to our area have long said that summer begins July 5th and the record book backs up...

Hottest day since August of 2012

By Rod Hill on 2014-07-02

Tuesday turned out to be a "dog day" of summer, meaning just one hot day. Yesterday's quick hitting hot spell was the warmest temperature in Portland since PDX hit 100 degrees back on August 16th of 2012. The airport's official high temperature Tuesday was 99 degrees at 4:14 p.m. The re...

Lightning Safety

By Rod Hill on 2014-06-25

Lightning safety rules should be refreshed in your mind each summer. Lightning strike counting between 1990 - 2012 shows a dramatic increase across Oregon. Data, mostly collected from eastern Oregon, shows an increase in yearly strikes, rising from 29,000 strikes to nearly 50,000 on averag...

Summer begins Saturday morning!

By Rod Hill on 2014-06-17

Our cool & stormy weather feels like early spring, but summer is days away. The summer solstice will occur this Saturday at 3:51 a.m. PDT. At this time, the earth is tilted so that the north pole is at its closest point to the sun. (Yet, the earth will be at its farthest distance from the...

Drought conditions cover much of Oregon

By Rod Hill on 2014-06-10

The U.S. Drought Monitor report shows most of Oregon and much of Washington to be abnormally dry, with parts of southern Oregon declared as a moderate to severe drought. Severe drought conditions are in place over southeastern Oregon. Central Oregon, including Bend and the Two Bulls wildfire...

The summer of 2014 could be a scorcher!

By Rod Hill on 2014-05-19

If summer outlooks from the National Weather Service are correct, Portland and much of the Northwest will melt under above normal temperatures this June, July and August. The metro valley could experience its first hot summer since the record year of 2009. Normally, Portland experiences 55 da...

Portland's first 90 degree day of the year sets a record!

By Rod Hill on 2014-05-15

Portland's first 90 degree day of the year sets a new record for May 14th of 91 degrees. The old record of 88 degrees was just two year ago, back in 2012. No surprise to see 90 degree heat in mid-May, in fact most of Portland's daily record highs are now in the 90s. Today surpassed May 1s...

El Nino Expected Next Winter

By Rod Hill on 2014-04-29

A large slosh of warm water is migrating toward south America in the equatorial waters of the Pacific. Latest observations indicate surface water temps are 9 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. If the warm water area holds together and continues to migrate to the east, an El Nino pattern would...

2013-2014 Mt Hood Snow Season In Good Shape!

By Rod Hill on 2014-04-23

This week's hours of steady rain in the metro valley has been welcome snowfall on Mt. Hood, as resorts near the end of the 2013-2014 winter season. Skibowl has closed for the season, Mt. Hood Meadows will end daily operations this Sunday, but continue 3-day weekend openings into May and Tim...