Summer 2005 in the Portland area ended on a cool note, with only two minor heat waves the entire summer. The highest temperature was only 96, recorded one time. It is a rare summer when Portland doesn't hit 100 degrees at least once or twice, and rare that there are not two to four heat waves that last several days apiece. (my definition of "heat wave" is three or more days in a row with highs of 90 or above).
Summer 2005 started late, ended early, and never really got very hot.
Sept. 8-- the day hit 84 for a high. This was the last really warm summertime-type day in the Portland area (my definition is any day showing a high of 80 or more).... How many months will it be before Portland hits 80 degrees again? (based on history, it is likely to be 7-8 months, which means not until April or May; eg. the all-time record highs for April have not been 80 or above until the 12th of the month (82 degrees, April 12, 1943).
Sept. 28-- 76 degrees---the last day in Portland that showed a high of 75 or more.
Sept. 26th-- the last day in the Portland area rated as "clear" by the Weather Service on their scale of 0-10 cloudiness, where 0-3 rates as a clear day.
Sept. 23-26-- the last "clear spell" in Portland (defined as three or more clear days in a row). How many months will it be before Portland sees another clear spell? (based on history, it is likely to be between 2 and 5 months).
October 1-20. So far there have been
no clear days, one partly cloudy day, and the daily highs have
remained cool, never even hitting 70.
Comparisons with past heat records--- October 2, 1970, Portland
has a high of 90. Salem has an even hotter high of 93... And in
1980 this date, Medford was up to 99 degrees.
October 3, 1979, Portland was 86, and Medford hit 96…. In
1932 this date, Salem hit a very summery 92 degrees!
Noting the paragraphs above, I ask the reader: If there is so much global warming, why are many of the record highs for the Portland area found so far back in history, before the era usually associated with global warming?
I also ask why the proven fact of overall global warming has seemingly focused its effects on Oregon's wintertimes. Most experts agree that there's been a long-term, gradual lessening of winter snows and diminishment of the wintertime arctic air outbreaks that formerly brought massive cold to Oregon, and Oregon's glaciers have gradually shrunk from what they were when Oregon was being settled in the late 1800s..... Meanwhile, summertimes in Oregon have also been altered, but not in the direction one would expect with global warming, eg. there hasn't been an increase in the yearly amounts of truly hot and clear weather, with long-term record high temperature records falling left and right.... Instead what seems to have been occurring is a gradual shift in the onset of Oregon's summer, where June and the first half of July are often persistently cloudy and without any true heat, with the arrival of the settled hot/dry/sunny weather sometime during the second or third week of July--- but then summer-like conditions seeming to last 1-3 weeks later into the Fall than in past decades. (Note: this is my theory, developed over the past decade, and may not prove to be a long-term pattern).
November 2 addendum. Here's another item related to global warming in the Pacific Northwest------ I happened to note today that the Willamette Valley suffered all-time record lows for Oct. 31 (Halloween), and November 1--- but NOT in the distant past. Only a few years ago, in 2002, there was a record-breaking early-season cold wave all over the Willamette Valley; example, Eugene recorded a low of 17 degrees on Halloween, and 16 degrees the following night! Cool, short summers like Summer 2005, and these kind of low temperature events, make it easier to suspect an oncoming Ice Age than to notice global warming!
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