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Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

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Weather Eye, April 6: It’s not just a bunch of bluster; April is off to a gusty start

The Columbian
Published: April 6, 2010, 12:00am

It was another blustery day in the neighborhood Monday, with afternoon wind speeds between 25 mph and 35 mph and gusts upwards of 50 mph. I recorded a wind gust of 47 mph just after 4 p.m. There were reports of fallen trees and limbs, with scattered power outages. As trees begin to leaf out, it makes them much more vulnerable to the stiff breezes.

And speaking of wind, the much-talked-about “wind storm” of Friday drew comments from many readers around the area. Although, officially, wind gusts did not meet the predicted peak speeds, it was very windy. The 47 mph gust at Portland International Airport was the strongest wind gust in the month of April in nearly 50 years. The brunt of the high winds hit the Puget Sound region, with Everett braving winds of 60 mph. The advisory was warranted, based on data provided by forecast models, satellite photos and ocean buoy reports. Better to be prepared and dodge a bullet than be sitting in the dark, wondering what happened.

The local Chapter of the American Meteorological Society will meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Clackamas, Ore. George Miller, historian and science professor at Marylhurst University, will give a presentation titled “Was Weather A Factor in the Israelite Crossing of the Red Sea?” He has given many good, interesting talks over the years, so don’t miss this one. Everyone is welcome. If you would like to have dinner, go to the chapter’s Web site at www.ametsoc.org/chapters/oregon for details.

I am compiling the local rainfall reports for March and will present them in my next column. Snowpack in our state has improved greatly in the past few weeks in terms of snow-water equivalent. The Southern Cascades is at 88 percent of normal; Olympics, 125 percent; Central Cascades, around 65 percent; and the North Cascades, 73 percent.

Pat Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at weathersystems.com.

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