Lohmann: February Averages Out, Oregon Catches Up

As we wrap up February, it will go down as a fairly normal month.  Because of the wild swings, with warm weather to start the month, and below average temperatures to close it, Marilyn Lohmann, meteorologist with the National Weather Service says February will statistically be spot on, temperature wise.  While for Washington this has been a good winter as far as soil moisture and snowpack, the same can’t be said for Oregon.  Lohman told the Washington Ag Network Oregon’s dry conditions started back in December and January.

“And during that early period, the storm track was over Washington, with High Pressure over much of Oregon.  So it lost out on the relatively wet period we saw in December and January. We don’t think of it as that bad because we didn’t see the snow, I don’t think in the low elevations, we saw mainly rain.”

Lohmann said the track has changed, pushing storms down the west coast before moving inland, which has helped beef up the Oregon snowpack.  As far as soil temperatures are concerned, they currently sit in the mid-30s, which she expects to hold for the foreseeable future.

As we look further down the road, Lohman says the La Nina we’re experiencing right now will weaken as we move into spring, resulting an a La Nina neutral pattern.

“So, then the outlooks for June, July and August are for above normal temperatures and below normal precipitation, so it looks like a hot and dry Inland Northwest summer.”