By Rod Hill on 2013-03-20
As promised a morning cold front is starting our spring season with a raindrop splat! Here are the totals as of 5:00 this morning:
Astoria .96" / Newport .59" / Portland .61" / Vancouver .71" / Kelso .56" / Hillsboro .71" / McMinnville .63" / Salem .76" / Hood River .46" / The Dalles .18"
As spring begins, the normal high temperature for Portland is 58 degrees and the normal low is 40 degrees. All daily records moving forward show high temperatures in the 70s or warmer, while record lows can still be in the 20s through May 1st!
Despite this morning's rainfall, forecast charts continue to indicate near normal to below precipitation for the spring months. March is likely to finish with below normal rainfall, becoming the third consecutive month to do so.
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The Vernal Equinox kicked-off spring this morning, March 20th at 4:02 a.m. PDT. The Equinox is the day on which both the north and south pole are equal distance to the sun (92.6 million miles). The sun will stand directly over the Earth's equator, bringing equal hours of darkness and daylight. The term vernal means green and equinox means equal night. The coming days will see minutes of daylight begin to out number minutes of darkness as we march toward the summer season.
Winter Seeing Less Cold Than Normal