NOUS46 KPQR 070319 PNSPQR PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PORTLAND OR 720 PM PST FRI FEB 6 2004 ...2003 EUGENE YEAR IN REVIEW... FOR THE YEAR OF 2003...EUGENE EXPERIENCED MUCH ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES AND BELOW NORMAL PRECIPITATION. THIS ABNORMALLY WARM AND DRY WEATHER REALLY CANNOT BE BLAMED ON AN EL NINO/LA NINA PHENOMENA AS WEAK LA NINA CONDITIONS EARLY IN THE CALENDAR YEAR TRANSITIONED TO NEUTRAL CONDITIONS DURING THE SPRING AND REMAINED AS SUCH FOR THE REST OF 2003. ...NOTABLE WEATHER EVENTS... JANUARY AND FEBRUARY WERE ABNORMALLY PLEASANT WINTER MONTHS CHARACTERIZED BY PREDOMINANT OFFSHORE FLOW. HOWEVER...JAN 29 THROUGH JAN 31 BROUGHT HEAVY RAINS TO WESTERN OREGON...HOWEVER THE EUGENE AREA ONLY REPORTED 1 TO 3 INCHES DURING THIS 3 DAY STRETCH. THE GENERAL LACK OF PRECIPITATION AND WARM TEMPERATURES DURING THIS PERIOD WOULD ALSO SERIOUSLY AFFECT THE SNOWPACK IN THE CASCADES...A CONSEQUENCE WHICH WOULD HAVE DEVASTATING EFFECTS COME SUMMER. RAINFALL RETURNED TO THE EUGENE AREA IN MARCH AND APRIL...BUT NOT ENOUGH TO OVERCOME THE DEFICITS CREATED EARLIER IN THE YEAR. THERE WERE NO PARTICULAR DAYS WITH HEAVY RAINFALL...BUT THE NUMBER OF RAINFALL DAYS WAS INCREDIBLY HIGH WITH 25 DAYS OF RAINFALL IN MARCH AND 24 DAYS IN APRIL. THE RAINS STOPPED IN MAY...AND THUS BEGAN THE LONG HOT SUMMER. VERY WARM AND DRY CONDITIONS DOMINATED JUNE...JULY...AND AUGUST WITH WILDFIRES BECOMING THE PRIMARY CONCERN THROUGHOUT THE FORESTS OF NORTHWEST OREGON. FIRES SCORCHED TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ACRES IN OREGON WITH THE LARGEST FIRE BEING THE B&B COMPLEX FIRE IN THE SISTERS AREA WHICH BEGAN IN MID AUGUST. US 20 THROUGH SANTIAM PASS WAS CLOSED FOR A SIGNIFICANT STRETCH OF TIME AFFECTING BOTH LOCAL TRANSPORTATION AND ECONOMIES. THE WEATHER WOULD NOT HELP THE FIRE FIGHTING EFFORTS...WITH EUGENE RECEIVING NO RAIN FROM JUNE 23RD THROUGH AUGUST 1ST. IN FACT...THE LACK OF RAINFALL IN THE MONTH OF JULY WAS ONLY THE 3RD TIME NO RAIN HAD FALLEN IN JULY IN EUGENE SINCE RECORD TAKING BEGAN AT MAHLON FIELD IN 1931. FOR THIS 3 MONTH PERIOD...A PALTRY 0.28 INCHES OF RAIN FELL IN EUGENE. THE WARM TEMPERATURES FINALLY BROKE IN OCTOBER...BUT IT WOULD BE UNTIL THE MIDDLE OF NOVEMBER UNTIL GENEROUS RAINS FELL. BY DECEMBER...NOT ONLY DID RAINS AFFECT THE AREA...BUT LOW ELEVATION SNOWS RETURNED TO THE EUGENE AREA AS WELL. ...RECORDS SET IN 2003... .HIGH TEMPERATURES... .LOW TEMPERATURES... .PRECIPITATION... JANUARY 2ND - 57 MAY 18TH - 32 DECEMBER 13TH - 2.68 JANUARY 21ST - 60 JANUARY 23RD - 61 MARCH 30TH - 78 *** RECORD FOR MONTH OF MARCH JULY 28TH - 100 JULY 29TH - 101 JULY 30TH - 99 SEPTEMBER 4TH - 97 SEPTEMBER 27TH - 97 NOVEMBER 28TH - 60 OCTOBER 20TH - 80 OCTOBER 27TH - 73 ===================================================================== ...PRELIMINARY CLIMATE INFORMATION FOR EUGENE AIRPORT 2003... ...TEMPERATURE DATA AVG AVG AVG DEPARTURE TEMPERATURE MONTH HIGH LOW MEAN FROM NORMAL HIGHEST/LOWEST REMARKS JAN 50.7 39.6 45.2 +5.4 61 29 FEB 50.9 34.1 42.5 -0.3 59 25 MAR 56.4 41.9 49.2 +2.9 78 32 APR 57.4 41.4 49.4 -0.4 69 35 MAY 65.9 43.7 54.8 0.0 81 32 JUN 76.7 47.8 62.3 +2.1 96 40 JUL 87.3 50.4 68.8 +2.6 101 43 AUG 83.4 51.6 67.5 +1.1 93 45 SEP 79.1 48.9 64.0 +2.3 97 40 OCT 66.4 45.9 56.1 +3.5 80 27 NOV 49.8 36.2 43.0 -1.7 60 20 DEC 47.7 37.1 42.4 +2.9 58 25 ANNUAL 64.3 43.2 53.8 +1.7 101 20 WARMEST HIGH TEMPERATURE...101 ON JUL 29TH COLDEST LOW TEMPERATURE...20 ON NOV 1ST LAST SPRING FROST DAY...MAY 18TH FIRST FALL FROST DAY...OCT 30ST ...RAINFALL DATA TOTAL NORMAL DEPARTURE REMARKS MONTH PRECIP PRECIP FROM NORMAL JAN 6.67 7.65 -0.98 FEB 2.79 6.35 -3.56 MAR 5.68 5.80 -0.12 APR 5.62 3.66 +1.96 MAY 1.07 2.66 -1.59 JUN 0.19 1.53 -1.34 JUL 0 0.64 -0.64 DRIEST ON RECORD AUG 0.08 0.99 -0.91 SEP 0.81 1.54 -0.73 OCT 1.98 3.35 -1.37 NOV 5.73 8.44 -2.71 DEC 10.63 8.29 +2.34 ANNUAL 41.25 50.90 -9.65 WATER YEAR 2002-2003 40.09 -10.81 ...WIND DATA STRONGEST WIND GUST...46 MPH FROM THE SOUTHWEST ON APR 25TH FOR MORE CLIMATE INFORMATION...VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.WRH.NOAA.GOV/PORTLAND/CLIMATE (ALL LOWERCASE)