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Saturday, October 10, 2020

Oregon's Warming

Oregon has warmed about 2.5°F (1.4°C) since the beginning of the 20th century, according to NOAA data

The last 10 years have been the warmest on record, as have the last 30. In this graph, "MA" = moving average:

The warmest year so far was 2015, followed by 1934, 2014, 1992 and 2004.

Oregon's climate, though, is strange, because the state is sharply divided into two different climate zones depending on which side of the Cascade Mountains you're looking at. (They bisect the state from north to south.) The west side, where most of the population is, with the cities of Portland, Salem and Eugene, is rainy much of the year with the forests almost rain forests. The east side of the mountains, where the major city is Bend, is huge, and dry, high-altitude, scrub forests. It reminds me a lot of New Mexico. So I don't know how meaningful a statewide average is -- one really needs averages for each of the two regions to get a clear picture. 

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