No, you aren’t crazy! First half of spring has been unusually cold & wet

This is my 32nd spring forecasting weather west of the Cascades. That means I’ve seen a bit of everything over these decades; so nothing seems too shocking/surprising when it comes to spring rain and cold. That said, maybe I’m just turning into the old guy that waves off anything dramatic with a “I’ve seen this before...it’s no big deal!”. So let’s check out the numbers and see how unusual this spring is so far.

First, meteorological spring is March 1st through May 31st. So we’ve almost reached the halfway point. March was very chilly across the entire western USA; most of Oregon was in the WELL BELOW NORMAL category.

That trend has continued this month with no days reaching a normal high (60-62 degrees) in Portland! These first 13 days are the coldest since 2011.

In fact for most western valley locations it’s the coldest early April since at least 2011. I sure notice at home (1,000′ in western Gorge) that no trees have turned green yet and my apple/pear trees aren’t even close to blooming yet. I suppose that’s good in case we get a frost again in the next week.

This means you can put a big checkmark beside SPRING 2023 = MUCH COLDER THAN NORMAL.

Rain? Yep...very wet in April so far. I had blocked out the fact that April 2022 was the wettest on record in Portland! But this year we are even wetter in the first 13 days than last year at this point

If you are a gardener like me, you know it’s been difficult to even get things started with this cold/wet combo. Unfortunately I don’t see any sign of a change for at least another 7-10 days. Of course the reason we’ve seen this pattern is because the jet stream keeps dipping down into the Pacific Northwest. Cold upper-level “troughs” in the jet drop in over our region. We are getting just a brief break today through Saturday as an upper-level ridge builds just to our east. That keeps wet Pacific weather systems away.

But then it’s back to cool/wet early next week. Check out the view Monday

Then next Wednesday, the 19th. Another cold pool of air is sitting overhead. It won’t be quite as chilly as yesterday’s that brought sticking snow close to sea level in spots. Those of you up around 1,500′ can expect at least a dusting of snow once again around Tuesday/Wednesday mornings.

Looking farther ahead, this general pattern with cool troughs dropping into the western USA doesn’t seem to change for at least another 10 days. That’s through at least the 23rd or 24th. The main message here is that we are stuck with this pattern through at least next week

SUMMARY

• This has been the coolest/wettest 1st half of spring we’ve seen in at least 10-12 years
• After these three mainly dry days, rain returns Sunday
• Early-mid next week features chilly temperatures and cold showers once again
• The cool/wet pattern likely continues through at least Sunday the 24th

Copyright 2023 KPTV-KPDX. All rights reserved.