By Rod Hill on 2011-04-30
April 2011 will likely go in the books with 5.04" of rainfall. The total is the 3rd wettest April at PDX since records began in 1941. The wettest April at PDX was back in 1993 when 5.26" fell. April 1996 had 5.12" for second place. Normal rainfall for the month is 2.64".
19 days had measurable rainfall, the record is 25 last year - 2010. 14 days is the 30 year average. I will post the temperature report tomorrow when the NWS climate post is published.
Most interesting to me is the following: The water year total (Oct. 1st - Sept. 30th) is currently 39.33" Portland will see it's first 40.00" of total precipitation for a water year since 1983-1984. In terms of climate, 40" is what I consider the benchmark for a "wet" year. The 11-year period ending of below 40.00" each water season ties the longest streak from 1983-84 to 1993-94. Here is what is interesting, the prior so-called dry streak was followed by the very wet years of 1994-1998, including the infamous flooding year of 1996. It will be interesting to see, if we cycle into a period of much wetter years.
If it was not for our wet spring, PDX would likely have gone 12 water years without a 40" season for the first time in history!
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