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Weather Statistics
Weather charts, graphs, and commentary relating to fruit-growing conditions
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Larry_G
208 Posts
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1
May 3, 2022 - 8:42 pm

KPDXrainApr2022-1993.png

A wet final day of April 2022 took Portland from #5 to #1 wettest since 1938.

The four wettest Aprils have occurred in the last 30 years, but 2020+2021 were the driest two-year period.

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Larry_G
208 Posts
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2
May 3, 2022 - 8:50 pm

KPDXtempApr2022-1993.png

(Red date labels for high temperature lines, blue date labels for low temperature lines)

April 2022 did not make any top 10 ranking for high or low temperature, but it was the fourth-coldest April in the past 30 years.

The below-average April 2022 broke a string of 10 consecutive years of above average lows, and was the coldest of any month going back nearly three years.

For the 30 years above, note that there are only 3 record minimum low daily records, while there are 20 record maximum highs and 17 maximum low (warm overnight) records.

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John S
PDX OR
2955 Posts
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jafar
837 Posts
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4
May 4, 2022 - 6:38 pm

Larry, I see you've edited the post to update it.  Thank you.

So this April was the wettest that you have on record, and the coldest on average of the last 11 years.

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Larry_G
208 Posts
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5
May 4, 2022 - 8:32 pm

Correct.

Peak quince tree bloom was about 10 days late even though the first hint of color was on time.

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jafar
837 Posts
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6
May 4, 2022 - 9:08 pm

My diminutive pineapple quince at my mom's house broke in half (by volume) from the heavy wet April snow it got this year.  

but I have a tiny tree of it at my new place, and growing on the self rooted quince I got from John years ago.   The original variety of that tree is now in bloom.  It also hosts 3 varieties of loquat, a pear, and Smyrna quince.

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Rooney
Vancouver SW Washington
835 Posts
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7
May 5, 2022 - 3:38 pm

The first thing I did after your tables was imagine what was flowering and in particular my normally over-productive pear hybrid was in full flower during the heavy snow. Easy to prove it was April 10-11. So I'm one of probably very few people that will wind up grateful for all this that happened because I won't need to be fruit thinning. If I have no pears on my pears that get codling moths then that might be one more positive side effect.

As far as my hybrids and asian/japanese plums. This flowering occurred in March. The results of using Methley hybrid plum pollen (got those from John S) onto my Shiro plum had been placed on several flowers of Shiro on a nice day. I marked them, they held up for about past the April snow, then turned yellow and lost them. This proves that for Methley plum to be a good pollinator it will need at least to be different than this year was. Hybrid Lydecker also could not form fruits on Shiro. Shiro manages to form fruit every year from within itself, and including this year, there will be a few plums. 

Hybrid Shiro pollen placed on 6 Lydecker hybrid plum flowers succeeded to produce one (ie. 1/6th success). The pure nankings and pure beach plum pollens have started my Lydecker fruiting this year (ie. about 1/3rd success). What my Lydecker looks like is under my huge aluminum framed patio door glass, unlike the Shiro in open air. This aids in the bumper crop prediction for Lydecker and future classes of mini-plum species! I guess it's also amazing how four 1.5 inch round poles pounded into the ground can hold a large sliding glass door overhead without being blown off or crushed with snow! 

If that's freeware then I would like to make one since it's raining this week for the month of March. 

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Larry_G
208 Posts
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8
May 5, 2022 - 4:22 pm

KPDXsnowApr2022-1993.png

Two mentions above of April 2022 snow gets you a table showing this lonely snow event, the only April PDX snow since records began in 1938.

The lowest historical average the weather tool considers is 0.1", hence the 1900% for 1.9".

X83 in the second line means the zero snow total has occurred 83 times.

I didn't lose any piece of a fruiting plant here, but I was prompted to get up early and take an old broom to the feijoas and quince that were sagging badly by 8AM. We had nearly 3 inches here. It was as heavy as the 3/8" of February 2021 ice.

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Rooney
Vancouver SW Washington
835 Posts
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9
May 18, 2022 - 4:14 pm

With cold and wet still going on into May it won't take much figuring out that we are getting lots of nitrogen percolating into the root zone. Nitrogen is a good thing because it works to promote explosive growth. But what are the side-effects? 

So it is, that I have heard now in writing, that nitrogen does have a side effect, so let me source the article that states that essentially what any nitrogen applications will do irregardless of the source of nature or farm fertilized:

2022/may/07/secret-world-beneath-our-feet-mind-blowing-key-to-planets-future

Of course it may be just as simple to quote what is said, which is, that ground dwelling bacteria build structures in the soil beneath our feet, in turn, thus allowing fruit tree roots to breathe the breath of life, - right? 

It makes allot of sense to me that from all this rain and unwanted possibilities of nature that these soil bacteria are going to need an unusually longer natural rebuilding period of time to fix what is currently dooming our fruit trees. (ie. peach leaf curl to plums and peaches etc)

It also makes just as much sense for somebody to spell me out that I don't know what I'm talking about too. And we don't know. This and other articles have yet to gain this kind of tracing-out and insight in busy times of trying to figure out more important issues of a shrinking world. So there's zero proof that I do know anything. 

One glimmer of hope, or might give some hope of answering this, are the huge rocks that surround the locally planted apricot trees and surely roots are extending all underneath these huge boulders. None of those parts of the roots would be effected by death of the existent microbes because it is physically not presented there. For example the rain is deflected away. Heavy fall leaf clutter and decomposition (not pictured) would also capture nitrogen that would otherwise inflict the same kind of slow motion train wreck. 

This is the only picture from HOS local forums done on another topic elsewhere that's needed to portray the "boulder protection".

Healthy & productive Vancouver WA apricot seedling of Moorpark

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John S
PDX OR
2955 Posts
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10
May 19, 2022 - 10:07 am

I have often heard that the time that trees most need nitrogen is now: in the spring after they have greened out.  Got home from work? Drinking a beer? Go outside in your yard.

John S
PDX OR

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Larry_G
208 Posts
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11
July 12, 2022 - 10:29 pm

PDXspringHLP1990-2022.png

Before last spring becomes a distant memory, here are the Portland stats.

3 graphs: all for years 1990 to 2022. Spring=equinox to solstice (~mar20-jun20)

average high temperature departure from normal (red labels)

average low temperature departure from normal (blue labels)

precipitation totals (green labels)(heavy line just above the 7" is the spring rain average).

Note: the average high for 2022 was nearly 6 degrees colder than for 2021 (-2 vs +4); yet the average low for both years was nearly the same.

2022 was 2nd wettest (since 1938) while 2021 was 3rd driest. The six wettest springs are on the above graph.

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John S
PDX OR
2955 Posts
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12
July 18, 2022 - 7:52 am

Thanks Larry G,

GOod data.

John S
PDX OR

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Rooney
Vancouver SW Washington
835 Posts
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13
January 26, 2023 - 5:23 pm

Data from PDX inclusive of wind speeds and rain for averages so far this month compared to last January 2022 is we just got 28% more in wind speed and about 65% of the rain.

The former is an aid to the latter in both the lowering of overall disease susceptibility and keeping things dormant (ie. expanding too early). The proof of this theory is best to come from James who we know has the very earliest flowering type of ume apricot. Nothing is expanding yet on this side of the river of PDX other than Shiro plum. I won't be gathering scions from Shiro, it's probably too late now. 

Here is where I got my data:     PDX update

Over the years I have noted gummosis develop near areas in cherry branches that still have leaves attached. Mine all blew off in the night between January 4th to 5th.


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jafar
837 Posts
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14
January 26, 2023 - 5:57 pm

I got outside a bit yesterday.  Hollywood and probably Nadia and the pluots were swelling.  Other stuff too. 

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Rooney
Vancouver SW Washington
835 Posts
(Offline)
15
January 26, 2023 - 8:47 pm

Makes sense Jafar. If I remember right all yours is likely to be less windy? Therefore my shiro next to a solid new fence of 6 feet tall and having been reduced so short and wide brings early flowers. By comparison all the rest of them are near wire fences or no fence at all.

Next door the now dead homeowner had a squatter living in that garage last winter. The surviving estate gave him the boot this year. He always said his temporary housing here is the most windy place around the town. What we see is that fruit trees feel it too.

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Larry_G
208 Posts
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16
March 7, 2023 - 5:16 pm

I stumbled across this surprising stat while lamenting our continuing cool weather this winter.

When was the last time there was a record low in Portland for ANY day in March?

Answer: 27 years ago, 26 March 1996 !

KPDXmarchLows1993-2022.png

^the above table does not include this year's incomplete March; there have been no record lows in this first week.

^daily extremes in above table are in BOLD; record lows marked by dark blue rectangles; record maximum lows marked by dark red rectangles.

By contrast, there have been 11 daily high records for the same time period (my manual count; daily highs table not shown).

Note also that 6 of the 10 warmest low temperature monthly averages have occurred in the past 20 years. (red #N or T-N labels)

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Larry_G
208 Posts
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17
March 7, 2023 - 8:13 pm

...and wondering if March is the longest low record temperature lapse (it is),

Month [hyphen] year of latest daily low temperature record [comma] years ago (since latest data)

Jan - 2017, 6

Feb - 2023, 0

Mar - 1996, 27

Apr - 2021, 1

May - 2012, 10

Jun - 2002, 20

Jul - 2011, 11

Aug - 2021, 1

Sep - 2000, 22

Oct - 2021, 1

Nov - 2003, 19

Dec - 2014, 8

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John S
PDX OR
2955 Posts
(Offline)
18
March 8, 2023 - 9:17 pm

That's interesting, because March has been cold this year.  Not amazingly cold, but consistently cold.

I guess records are only set when it is amazingly cold, even for one day, not consistently cold.

John S
PDX OR

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Larry_G
208 Posts
(Offline)
19
March 9, 2023 - 1:31 pm

Consistently cold records show up as top-10 coldest or warmest monthly or yearly averages.

Not enough of March has passed to expect a top-10 ranking.

One indicator of a cold winter has been the Cryptomeria tree in my backyard, the foliage is

heavily bronzed, a condition requiring consistent cold temperatures. In milder winters it stays

nearly entirely green.

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