Vernal Equinox & Spring 2016!
ski3pin said:
Wow Mark, 25° above the average!
I
know!
Some years that could be near the high for the summer -- and it's still 2+ weeks before summer even starts!
Central Oregon's high temps aren't as hot as other places...but what's "extreme" in a particular area is relative to "normal". Like...I have a friend who grew up in Houston, TX, and she tells me that if it gets down to 50° there they think it's cold!
Wow-after a night of super winds, rain, thunder and lightning, today dawned clear, bright, hot and sunny with only a 20% chance of rain instead of the projected 50% with nice weather ahead for the week. I guess the storm blew itself out! Time to go plug in the pop-up and get ready to head out to the high country on the marrow
---that is unless the snows a couple of feet tonight
!
Smoke
Dangerous, Extreme Heat Envelops Much Of The West
from the Weather.com link above:
"..The high temperature of 115 degrees at Phoenix, Arizona, on Saturday was their earliest 115 degree temperature on record..."
Records Set
Thursday, Death Valley National Park recorded a high of 120 degrees, topping the daily record, there. This was the nation's first 120-degree high of 2016.
Friday, almost two dozen cities tied or set daily record highs, including:
Phoenix: 113 degrees
Las Vegas: 107 degrees (tied)
Reno, Nevada: 96 degrees
San Francsico (SFO Int'l Airport): 87 degrees (tied)
Saturday, more records continue to pour in, including:
Needles, California : 118 degrees
Phoenix : 115 degrees
Las Vegas : 109 degrees (tied)
Medford, Oregon: 100 degrees
Portland, Oregon : 98 degrees
Numerous records were set on Sunday, including:
Boise, Idaho: 97 degrees
Phoenix: 113 degrees
Tucson, Arizona: 110 degrees
Las Vegas: 109 degrees
Yakima, Washington: 101 degrees
Portland, Oregon: 100 degrees
Spokane, Washington: 95 degrees
Grand Canyon Airport: 95 degrees
Eugene, Oregon: 94 degrees
Seattle: 93 degrees
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I'd like to visit Death Valley some time when it's >120° -- just for the experience.
But I wouldn't camp there -- I'd get a room indoors, probably at Furnace Creek, so I'd have a refuge from the heat. I don't like camping when it's >90°, so an added 30° -- without respite -- would be more "experience" than I'd care to have.
Growing up in Redding, CA I experienced 118° twice -- I'd like to increase that personal best by a few degrees.
The last day of our heat spell -- tied the daily record today for high temperature -- ended in a very wet thunderstorm this afternoon. I happened to be driving through town at the peak, and it was windshield wipers on high...water piling up on the road faster than it can drain off...rivers runnning down the street and pooling in low spots. Bend only gets 12 inches of precipitation in an average year, and I think some parts of town got a significant fraction of that today.
This much precipitation is uncommon here, so the street-drainage infrastructure isn't designed for it. Uncommon, but not unheard-of...so when it does happen a couple of low underpasses always become impassable lakes for a couple of hours. And a car or two will usually try to swim through and stall.
