So here's a 24-hour expected rain meteogram for our location.
About 1.9 inches in 24 hours. Oof.
And yes, some rain is expected before and after. We Shall See how this totals up!
24 November 2018
21 November 2018
so ends another calm period
And so resumes the autumn!
We are currently over 7 inches low for November - this could bring us almost level!
08 November 2018
first frost..
.. hasn't happened yet.
It's a fun law of thermodynamics that keeps us warmer than the valley floors where I grew up.. or at least became old. Halloween is my 'expected' time of frost, give or take a few days (i.e. whenever the skies clear up between storm fronts). It should be a full moon too, just to be right - and I should be listening to old Uriah Heep tunes!
Oops, mental derailment..
Life at 750' means watching most fog develop below our hill-top, where the cool air sinks and condenses. Cold-air drainage is the real deal, and we watch it frequently when the air-mass is relatively tranquil.
A few weeks back I saw a few light patches of frost in lower Longview, on well-drained bark dust. It didn't really count since it was so limited. They may have frosted last night, as the official readout showed 33° (all 'official' readouts come from at least three feet above ground level) and Scappoose came in at 28°. We stopped here at just under 35° - when I went to bed it was about there, and so it was this morning after several tiny fluctuations.
If the air got colder it slid downhill before reaching my semi-'official' readout on a 5-foot pole. Not much warmer in the hills with this pattern - but enough.
And so we continue to wait for our First Frost.
It's a fun law of thermodynamics that keeps us warmer than the valley floors where I grew up.. or at least became old. Halloween is my 'expected' time of frost, give or take a few days (i.e. whenever the skies clear up between storm fronts). It should be a full moon too, just to be right - and I should be listening to old Uriah Heep tunes!
Oops, mental derailment..
Life at 750' means watching most fog develop below our hill-top, where the cool air sinks and condenses. Cold-air drainage is the real deal, and we watch it frequently when the air-mass is relatively tranquil.
A few weeks back I saw a few light patches of frost in lower Longview, on well-drained bark dust. It didn't really count since it was so limited. They may have frosted last night, as the official readout showed 33° (all 'official' readouts come from at least three feet above ground level) and Scappoose came in at 28°. We stopped here at just under 35° - when I went to bed it was about there, and so it was this morning after several tiny fluctuations.
If the air got colder it slid downhill before reaching my semi-'official' readout on a 5-foot pole. Not much warmer in the hills with this pattern - but enough.
And so we continue to wait for our First Frost.
26 October 2018
cancel that..
After two inches of rain in two days, and another inch coming in the next 36 hours, October will be above average with four days to go. It's really unlikely that we will get to ten inches.. but I'm done with strong expectations about the fall rainy season!
25 October 2018
a dry October?
Here are the amounts we've received in October 2016-7-8
(PRISM = 30-year 'normal')
We've had two huge Octobers recently, and those will really mess with the next 30-year average - but this year we're about half of normal. Another inch or more is forecast to get us closer to normal (and clearly we can get a bunch of rain in an October week!) but we won't come close to the last two values. Septembers had also been well above normal until this year.
The 30-year values are derived from local observations and then biased by the PRISM model to estimate areas between the points based on location and elevation. Perhaps that logic needs to be examined for future estimates, especially in the autumn?
17 September 2018
perpetual change
After an exceptionally dry May-July we're being quite wet here in September. The skies have been many shades of grey and some impressive clouds and rainbows. Summer is nice around here but the sky sure is boring when it's always blue all day.
Our weather gage was receiving a lot of late-day sun, which likely had a great deal to do with our very late high temperatures.
I shifted the system further into the shade, where the sun shines very seldom - and the bell curve has definitely shifted to the more-reasonable side of 6PM for our daily highs. Note the sunrise spike though, when the sun can reach the gage this time of year.
Fixing a temperature curiosity
Our weather gage was receiving a lot of late-day sun, which likely had a great deal to do with our very late high temperatures.
Now I need to do some more tree trimming, as rain falling at a sharp angle will be blocked
from the precipitation bucket. I think this will do a better job overall.
09 June 2018
the missing winter recap
Our final snow of the year arrived the morning after Easter Sunday. A good inch stuck to our deck by mid-morning before showers decreased and the early-April sun did its work. By afternoon it was a memory, other than the small slush-piles near car windshields.
We ended this season at just over 23″ of snow on our deck, so that was about half of our total from last year. The snowfall in 2015-16 lulled us to sleep (about 5 inches total) but now we know that was a sub-par year. We made an excellent play-hill of our driveway after our all-time max of about 15 inches covered the ground on 24 February - nice memories and a few aches that soon passed.
As to rainfall, another plus season is in the books. Oct-Mar rainfall was about 3" below the full-year total we should receive, and counting mid-Oct to mid-Apr we were 3" above our expected 63.7 inches. May was absurdly dry with only 0.10" but this weekend we added about an inch - so all will be well and the sprinkler can take a break.
We ended this season at just over 23″ of snow on our deck, so that was about half of our total from last year. The snowfall in 2015-16 lulled us to sleep (about 5 inches total) but now we know that was a sub-par year. We made an excellent play-hill of our driveway after our all-time max of about 15 inches covered the ground on 24 February - nice memories and a few aches that soon passed.
As to rainfall, another plus season is in the books. Oct-Mar rainfall was about 3" below the full-year total we should receive, and counting mid-Oct to mid-Apr we were 3" above our expected 63.7 inches. May was absurdly dry with only 0.10" but this weekend we added about an inch - so all will be well and the sprinkler can take a break.
springummer season
Spring quickly mutated toward summer this year! May had just 0.10" of rainfall. We had much more rain yesterday than all of last month - that's an odd thing to say in June! In any case the Swainson's thrush have begun to sing with much more enthusiasm now.
I've added many plants to the yard recently, thanks to my new part-time job at the Home Depot. And this week I won't even need the sprinklers! Perhaps at some point in the future they can provide us with a new roof and/or a heat-pump system..
I've added many plants to the yard recently, thanks to my new part-time job at the Home Depot. And this week I won't even need the sprinklers! Perhaps at some point in the future they can provide us with a new roof and/or a heat-pump system..
24 May 2018
thrush day 2018!
This year's Thrush Day has been ..different.
The Swainsons Thrush had been heard on May 18th for the past two years, and this year they were out there on time - but they would not perform! We heard their 'whiip' call on the 18th and for several days afterward.
This morning the spiral call was finally heard by me! My wife heard it a few days before this while I was sleeping, but we've both heard it now.
Far more common is the black-headed grosbeak with its 'tipsy robin' call! I first made note of that last year and now that I know it isn't one of the many robins singing it's quite obvious. Strange to hear such a similar call with all its operatic variants..
The Swainsons Thrush had been heard on May 18th for the past two years, and this year they were out there on time - but they would not perform! We heard their 'whiip' call on the 18th and for several days afterward.
This morning the spiral call was finally heard by me! My wife heard it a few days before this while I was sleeping, but we've both heard it now.
Far more common is the black-headed grosbeak with its 'tipsy robin' call! I first made note of that last year and now that I know it isn't one of the many robins singing it's quite obvious. Strange to hear such a similar call with all its operatic variants..
07 February 2018
a New Thing for 2018
My recent switch to one.com as web and email host came with a WordPress site.
I'll be test-driving that for a while, in the hopes of
See you at https://geeklog.longviewers.one/ - for a while, at least!
I'll be test-driving that for a while, in the hopes of
- leaving the past behind me, with all its bad habits
- using tags well enough to enable me to also leave behind my geek 'blog
- leave behind the latest Blogger interface, where I keep editing the wrong 'blog!
See you at https://geeklog.longviewers.one/ - for a while, at least!
11 January 2018
radar updates & poor timing
The heaviest rain has now arrived in Portland. Sadly KRTX is not back for it, and KLGX is sporadic. We've had nearly an inch, but it's been easier to look out the window than to check the internet. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you aren't making plans for a good time to go outside soon!
Messages from the NWS radar status page:
MESSAGE DATE: JAN 11 2018 01:25:00
THE KLGX RADAR PLANNED SERVICE LIFE EXTENSION PROJECT WILL COME TO AN END TODAY (THURSDAY) AND THE RADAR IS EXPECTED TO RETURN TO SERVICE.
Message Date: Jan 10 2018 23:47:03 KRTX will be operating in a degraded mode overnight, through 9am PST/ 17z Jan 11
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