Weather Eye: Storms made new rainfall records; temps stay average

Happy last day of May! And what a month it has been for weather.

It started cold and wet, then made a wonderful run of 15 days without measurable rainfall, adding to the stretch of warm, dry weekends that began in April. That streak ended at 61/2 weekends.

What rainfall we missed in those 15 days was surely made up on the evenings of May 25 and 26, with record one-hour May rainfall totals reported at Portland International Airport. The new record was very close to tying the all-time one-hour rainfall record for the year by just .01 of an inch.

I expect to see a wide variation of rainfall totals next week when we tally the rainfall reports from friends and neighbors in Clark County. Vancouver rainfall for May as of 3 p.m. Wednesday was 3.12 inches, about .7 of an inch above average.

Temperatures for the month are expected to be just about average for the month as we put those statistics in the record books. So it is looking like a pretty normal month, except for the couple evenings of severe weather.

This has been a very wet spring, but unlike 2011, we have had some warm and dry periods in between the bouts of moisture, so it hasn’t really seemed that wet. And let’s face it, we have short memories on that side of things. At least I like to concentrate on the sunnyside-up weather and put the burnt-toast weather in the back of my mind.

June arrives Friday, and the month is expected to start mild and dry, but as clouds increase, a chance of rain does as well late in the day and into Saturday. Expect a brief break, then we broadbrush the forecast with clouds and showers through midweek. That is about as far as I will stick my neck out on forecasts because of model uncertainties.

Enjoy your weekend, and I’ll see you Sunday!

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