Weather Observations Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center/Pendleton Oregon State University
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New Years
January 1
Weather News
Current Crop Year summary has been posted at here. It is current through the morning of May 21.
Maximum air temperature for the period of 730AM 5/17/08 through 730AM 5/18/08 was 97F which beat the previous record of 94F from 2006 here at CBARC Pendleton.
CONTINUING DRY AND COOL WEATHER TURNING HOT LAST WEEKEND-As of the morning of May 21 here at CBARC-Pendleton we should have had 14.01 inches of precipitation for our Sept. 1 through May 21 crop year to date. We have had only 11.66 inches for that time period. In addition each day in May it doesn't rain we fall behind by another 0.04" of rain. April only had about 30% of the precipitation of a normal year. To date May has had only about 30% of normal precipitation. To compound the situation it has also been cool. Again for the 2008 crop year to date-Sept. 1 through May 21. We have accumulated 1811 wheat growing degree days this crop year. In a normal crop year we would have accumulated 1984 wheat growing degree days by May 21. That is a deficit of 173 wheat growing degree days for this crop year. At this time in May we normally accumulate 14.7 growing degree days per day. If we take the deficit of 173 GDD and divide by 14.7 we are behind in wheat growing degree days by 12 days of late May rate of accumulation. That has to be significant. Combine that with the recent very warm temperatures over the last weekend and the winter wheat crop has taken a beating lately here at CBARC-Pendleton.
February 2008 was much drier and warmer then normal. See here and here. February precipitation was only 41% of normal and places us about 1.5" below normal for the crop year.
When can You Seed Fallow Ground In the Fall? An Historical Perspective on Fall Rain (recently published in the 2006 CBARC Special Report)
Moro Station monthly weather summaries are now available here.
Hourly weather observations from Columbia Plateau Conservation Research Center's (USDA) automated weather station located at Pendleton, Oregon are available here. This summary is part of the Mesowest Network. Please let me know if this link is broken at karl.rhinhart@oregonstate.edu
Possible Precipitation Outcomes after an abnormally dry winter. A paper prepared for the 2005 CBARC-OSU special report
Daily Weather statistics for CBARC Pendleton here. Max's min's and averages for each day in Excel format.
Historical Weather for September 1, 1929 through current date in Excel spreadsheet format here (filterable by month also)
Moro Station Monthly Weather Summaries
National Weather Service Office in Pendleton, Oregon
Useful Information
-Past and Present Weather Codes
-Wheat Growing Degree Days formula
-NWS observing Handbook No. 2: Cooperative Station Observation
Crop Year Temperature and Precipitation Summaries
Weather for Calendar Years 2001 through 2008
Weather for Calendar Years 1929 through 2000
Useful Links
-Columbia Basin Agricultural Center/OSU
-Oregon State University Long Term Experiments
-Columbia Plateau Conservation Research Center/ARS
-NWS Cooperative Observer Program
Davis Groweather data
If this information from our Davis groweather station is of value to you drop me a note at Karl.Rhinhart@oregonstate.edu and I will once again download and post this data.
Last Updated January 7, 2009
Karl Rhinhart-Webmaster/author
Comments: mailto:Karl.Rhinhart@Oregonstate.edu