Coldest Summer in 17 Years, Really?

As some of you might have read by now via KGW/ The Columbian..etc Our good ol' Steve Peirce of the Oregon AMS released his article regarding this summers very odd and cool weather patterns. Im not shocked one bit by these claims, though, Steve did bring up some of his mistakes regarding the data he used in regards to historical Vancouver weather station data. Either other way, it's one for the record book, and we may be in for some cooler times come winter. Can Anyone say LA NINA!!


Coldest Portland Summer In 17 Years

Issued: September 1st 2010 - 8:05am

* Note - Permission is granted to quote or reuse the information below, with credit given to author.

"Portland just finished its last full month of summer 2010, and with it comes the distinction of being the coldest "meteorological" summer (June, July & August) in the past 17 years. The last time Portland experienced a summer this chilly was in 1993. This was the exact opposite of last summer, which was the warmest summer on record at the Portland International Airport (1941-2010). This was also the first summer since summer of 1976 (nearly 35 yrs) that all three summer months (June, July and August) recorded back-to-back below normal average monthly temperatures. In fact, Portland has now been below average for five back-to-back months, beginning in April and continuing through August. Either way you slice it, it was a chilly summer by Portland standards. Summer 2010 will also be known as the summer that featured large temperature swings from one extreme to the other, along with morning low clouds that persisted longer than normal."

Here are some additional highlights from the summer of 2010 ---
* 10th coldest June on record at the Portland Airport. * Single wettest June ever recorded (1941-2010). More than four and a quarter inches of rain fell.
* The latest date in history to finally reach 80 degrees for the first time in a given calendar year. That was done on June 11th of this year. The old record was June 9th.

Here are the top 15 coldest summers on record at the Portland Airport (1941-2010) ---

Year Jun Ave Jul Ave Aug Ave Summer Ave
1954 57.9 63.0 63.3 61.4
1964 58.7 64.5 63.7 62.3
1963 59.9 63.0 66.2 63.0
1955 60.7 63.4 65.5 63.2
1953 58.6 66.2 65.6 63.5
1957 62.0 65.5 64.5 64.0
1956 59.0 68.0 65.4 64.1
1976 60.4 67.2 65.5 64.3
1962 61.6 66.4 65.9 64.6
1949 61.7 65.9 66.5 64.7
1993 62.5 64.3 68.5 65.1
1989 64.2 65.5 66.0 65.2
1980 60.7 68.9 66.4 65.3
2010 60.4 67.5 68.1 65.3
1952 60.3 68.0 67.9 65.4


Steve Pierce
Vice President
Oregon Chapter of the American Meteorological Society (AMS)
503-504-2075 (Portland)
e-mail: stevejpierce@comcast.net

web site: http://www.ametsoc.org/chapters/oregon/