Medford area, Is this Hot weather normal? (Portland, Grants Pass: 2013, house)

[kadylady]

Originally Posted by Fiddlehead

Summers can get darn hot in Medford. That's the truth, but we have mountains, lakes, and rivers too cool off in, not to mention the coast a couple hours west,which is almost always cool and moist.

It's nice to have a hot day if you're rafting on the river!

[Steve97415]

Having lived in the Southwest, I have to laugh when people say it "gets hot" in Medford. We barely get enough annual heat units to grow decent tomatoes and peaches. Melons don't usually ripen until late Sept. if they ripen at all. What's hot? I'd say if it's still over 80 at midnight, that's hot. And that almost never happens. It's rarely over 65 at midnight. The daily high says very little about the day's overall thermal comfort level. Those who worry about the thermometer touching the 90's for a brief period late in the afternoon and coming back down should really live in Seattle or San Francisco. I'd say on a perfect summer day -- a day that logs the most number of hours possible in the comfortably balmy range -- the low is around 60F and the high is around 90F. That's a daily average temperature of 75F. If the daily range is much lower than that (say 50F to 80F), then there are a lot of chilly hours in the morning and evening. Typically on a day when the high is in the low 90's, it's still in the 70's at noon and doesn't get over 80 until 3 or 4 p.m. Heat, when it comes, comes late in the day, usually around dinner time. 95% of the weather complaints made by those who live in the Rogue Valley have to do with winter cold and rain.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Just about anywhere in Oregon, any type of weather you can think of is "normal".

Snow on the 4th of July. weather up over a hundred degrees. It can happen anywhere in the state.

The more extreme weather is generally of very short duration, but happens often enough that it isn't a freak occurrence.

[Fiddlehead]

Originally Posted by Steve97415

Having lived in the Southwest, I have to laugh when people say it "gets hot" in Medford. We barely get enough annual heat units to grow decent tomatoes and peaches. Melons don't usually ripen until late Sept. if they ripen at all. What's hot? I'd say if it's still over 80 at midnight, that's hot. And that almost never happens. It's rarely over 65 at midnight. The daily high says very little about the day's overall thermal comfort level. Those who worry about the thermometer touching the 90's for a brief period late in the afternoon and coming back down should really live in Seattle or San Francisco. I'd say on a perfect summer day -- a day that logs the most number of hours possible in the comfortably balmy range -- the low is around 60F and the high is around 90F. That's a daily average temperature of 75F. If the daily range is much lower than that (say 50F to 80F), then there are a lot of chilly hours in the morning and evening. Typically on a day when the high is in the low 90's, it's still in the 70's at noon and doesn't get over 80 until 3 or 4 p.m. Heat, when it comes, comes late in the day, usually around dinner time. 95% of the weather complaints made by those who live in the Rogue Valley have to do with winter cold and rain.

This is a nice description of the high and low temperature distributions. I would differ slightly and say my ideal day would be a high of about 90 with a low of about 52. That extra bit of diurnal range helps for sleeping and means slightly lower humidity. We get pretty close to that in Ashland many days in July and August.

I won't agree that the heat in Medford is trivial, or that it is only 5% of the complaints. It can get darn hot. Markedly hotter than the Willamette Valley, even if it does not last very long. It is about halfway between the cool, wet climate of the Willamette Valley, and the hot, sunny climate of the California Central Valley, which is pretty great overall, but it does have some of the unpleasant features of both (e.g., winter fog and summer heat).

[JeffBeck]

Just curious, do you get thunderstorms and lightning regularly?

I remember a friend told me Northern Oregon got rain all the time but never thunder or lightning and rarely heavy down pours. Mostly just a steady rain.

[Hawk J]

Once in a while we get a little thunder&lightning (here in the mountains of southwest OR) but most goes east of Medford.

In May, 2001 we were in Bullhead City, AZ area. It was 120 degrees. NOW that was HOT !!!....

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by JeffBeck

Just curious, do you get thunderstorms and lightning regularly?

I remember a friend told me Northern Oregon got rain all the time but never thunder or lightning and rarely heavy down pours. Mostly just a steady rain.

It occasionally happens, perhaps half a dozen times a year. Summer lightning is serious because it starts wildfires, and everything is as dry as tinder from July through September.

PNW rain does tend to a steady drizzle. Most Oregonians don't even bother with rain gear. If you are outside less than half an hour, a light jacket is all you need. Heavy rains happen when the jet stream pushes storms from the South Pacific onto the coast. We call it a "Pineapple Express." That's what causes floods in this area.

Oregon's most severe flood was the Christmas Flood of 1964. We had 2' of snow on top of frozen ground at low elevations, more at high elevations. Then we had an inch of freezing rain. You could walk on top of the snow and ice without breaking through. Then we got hit with a Pineapple Express that dumped 4 inches of 70 degree water on the ground. The snow and ice melted, the frozen ground kept the water from sinking in, and the flood was on.

Central Services History Center - 1964 Flood

[Steve Pickering]

Most of the fires are lightning caused, so we get them.

[Fiddlehead]

As for lightning. I would say that we don't get a lot, but we do get less than E. Oregon and more than NW Oregon. This time of year, thunderstorms can pop up over the Trinity / Marbles in N. California and drift over the E. Rogue Valley. Ashland gets at least one or two of these each summer. That said, by far the majority of our rain comes in cool season storms with no lightning and long, slow,light rain. As we move towards spring/early summer, it gets a bit showery. A nice season.

[Steve97415]

We don't get thunderstorms and lightning regularly, but neither are they the freak occurrence that they are in the Willamette Valley. Southwest Oregon is really the northernmost reach of the monsoon track that brings summer rain to the desert Southwest. It normally stays below the 40th parallel, but from time to time the jet stream can divert it up a couple of degrees more. The southern Oregon coast sometimes gets thunderstorms in fall and winter when comparatively warm weather masses from the south flow over the Siskiyous.