In 2012, bookend wet spells sandwiched the summer drought

Kathie Dello, deputy director of the Oregon Climate Service at Oregon State University, said the impacts from the three phenomena were significant.

“The state was really dry during the July to September period and it really extended into October,” Dello said. “In fact, it was the second driest summer period on record, which made it a big year for wildfires. Oregon (1.26 million acres) was second in the nation to Idaho (1.54 million acres) for most acres burned and many private woodland owners had to close their lands to hunters until mid-October because of fire danger. That doesn’t happen often.

“The two wet weather events affected western Oregon to a great extent, and caused some fairly serious flooding,” added Dello, who is in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. “There were also some rather damaging windstorms.”

One series of storms in January caused major flooding in the Willamette Valley and another series in late November soaked the southwestern portion of the state. These bookend wet spells made the year wetter than normal in western Oregon, though eastern Oregon ended up drier than average. Statewide records go back 118 years.

Corvallis is likely to close 2012 with the fourth wettest year on record, with 58.72 inches of precipitation through Dec. 27. The average over the past 30 years has been 42.71 inches. Totals of other Oregon cities, with data gathered in part from the National Weather Service in Portland, include:

n Medford has received 26.67 inches through Dec. 27, well above its average of 18.35 inches. On November 29, the town received its first rainfall of more than two inches since 2005.

n Portland has logged 50.43 inches in 2012, fourth highest on record, and well above its average of 36.1 inches.

n Salem is in the midst of the seventh wettest year on record with 54.38 inches; its average over the past 30 years is 39.67 inches.

“Almost all of the wet weather records are from 1996, when the state experienced some rather spectacular flooding,” Dello said. “That was a ‘100-year flood event’ and the records back it up.”

The chaotic weather in 2012 was fitting in a way – this coming winter is the first time since 2003 that the western United States wasn’t affected by either El Niño or La Niña conditions. El Niños typically result in warmer and drier winter weather; La Niñas are usually wetter, as it was in January, which was on the tail end of last winter’s La Niña.

“We are neither, for the first time in almost a decade,” Dello said. “Officially we are ENSO-neutral, or what some people call ‘La Nada.’”