Oregon: 2nd Warmest Year

In Oregon, 2014 was the second-warmest year since 1895, losing only to that perennial champion, 1934.

(Data from NOAA.)

The trend since 1895 is +0.11 C/decade, and +0.12 C/decade over the last 30 years. But the most recent 10 years has been -0.16 C cooler than the 10 years before.

(Yes, the plot is in Fahrenheit, but the trends are in Celsius. I've converted to the units the U.S. ought to be using. Frankly, our refusal to covert to metric is well past embarassment and into...just plain dumb.... Can you imagine the turd Republicans would lay if Obama were to propose we transfer to the metric system?)

I don't know if the high temperature here means much. Oregon is composed of two very distinct regions -- the area west of the Cascade Mountains, where it rains alot in the winter and where the blue people live, and east of the Cascades, which is rural, agricultural -- a desert much like New Mexico or parts of Australia. The red people live there. They are of a much different stripe (or we are), and are forever losing statewide elections to the blue smelly hippie communists from Portland. (About 1/3rd of the state's residents live in the Portland metro area.) If I were them, I would seriously consider breaking off and forming a separate state. (A few people are, but the movement isn't getting much, if any, support.) The United States is just too damn large; small is beautiful.

California has the same issues (climatologically and politically), and Washington state too -- too much separation, not enough coherence. Red and blue do not always make purple.

Anyway...last year's precipitation in Oregon was about average -- though again, averaged over two very different regions.

PS: Today I'm not worry about things like this, or this. Today the state is in mourning.