Rod's Weather Headlines

With talk of freezing rain in some spots today, especially the Columbia River Gorge, I want to clarify the differences between frozen precipitation types.  Freezing Rain:  Simply liquid rain in the air that freezes into a glaze of ice when the drops make contact with freezing objects on the...

Heavy snow the last two weeks, including more than 60 inches at Timberline Lodge, has pushed Oregon's snowpack to near normal across most areas. Overall, the snowpack is in much better shape than one year ago.  Using Mt. Hood as a comparison, the first week of 2011 had a snowpack of 54 perce...

Let's not worry about the debate of man made or natural and just focus on the fact our planet is in a warm cycle.  Temperature data for the United States shows a mean temperature for 2012 of 55.3 degrees Fahrenheit.  The temperature is a new record for a data set that begins in the 1800s.  T...

Here is an update to the soaker of a year 2012 has been so far.  Usually we talk about the water year, which runs from Oct. 1st through Sept. 30th.  The dates correspond with the mountain snow pack.  Records are also kept for the calendar year, January 1st through December 31st.  The normal...

I have always thought winter weather begins weeks before the calendar agrees.  The winter solstice officially changes the season at 3:12 a.m. PST Friday morning.  At that moment, the sun sits over the Tropic of Capricorn and the Earth's northern pole is tipped away from the sun.  As seen from...

Mild temperatures this fall are not producing records, but they allowing flowers to bloom.  So far, the lowest temperature at PDX has been 35 degrees, reached twice in November.  This is the latest in the season without an official freeze since the fall of 1999.  In fact, since 1999 this year...

Below is my response to a friends email about climate change.  I thought the article to be a good write and interesting read:     Thanks for sharing my friend.  All the data in your email is consistent with what i would call the un-bias scientific community.   The data below has been well documen...

Do you remember last May 5th, when we told you about the "Super Full Moon?"  The story that day was your chance to see what appeared to be the largest full moon of the year, as the moon made it's closest pass to earth.  The close position of 221,705 miles from earth is called the perigee. ...

As of 6:00 pm Monday, here is the storm summary.  The heavy rain and strong winds were produced by a Sunday evening warm front and the high wind field that followed, advecting a belt of deep moisture overhead Monday.  Coast Wind Reports:  Columbia River Bar, sustained 74 mph, gust of 97, Lincoln Ci...

Rain forecast Sunday evening Through Tuesday morning calls for:  3-5" or more at the coast, up to 8" over the Coast Range and 2-3" over the Valley.  Many area rivers & streams will reach near or over flood stage Monday night, including the Wilson River, Johnson Creek, Nehalem, Grays River and the Cl...