January's high temperatures were well above normal for the month. Corvallis had high temperatures that were over five degrees above normal. The lowest high temperature of the month was 39° on the 8th and 9th, and the highest high temperature of the month was a very mild and record tying 61° on the 24th (record was set in 1935). This came out to a 22° range of high temperatures this month. Low temperatures were also a bit above normal for the month; exactly four degrees above normal. There was a record highest low temperature set this month. The temperature dropped to only 51° on the 26th (old record was 49° set in 1920). As a whole, the month of January was very mild in Corvallis. Overall, temperatures were 3.7° above normal.

We recorded an above normal 7.22 inches of precipitation in January. This is the second month in a row that Corvallis has received above normal precipitation. The last time we had two consecutive months of above normal precip were the months of December 2001 and January 2002, exactly one year ago. There was one record setting day of rainfall this month on the 30th when we received 1.64 inches (old record was .75 inches set in 1990). Water year precipitation was 1.37 inches above normal at the end of January.

Table 1 - daily data recorded at the Hyslop Experiment Station.

Table 2 - access to the daily data recorded at the Corvallis Agri-Met Automated Station. You choose the station and parameters.

Summary:

Parameter                 Observed   Dep.*   Parameter                       Observed   Dep.*
 
Average maximum temperature  51.0    +5.5    Days with measurable precip.      24       +4.3   
                                                                         
Average minimum temperature  37.0    +4.0    Days with .10" or more precip.    15       +2.4    
                                                                       
Monthly precipitation        7.22    +0.40   Days with .50" or more precip.    4        -0.4    
                                                                                    
Growing degree days @ 50F     15      +12    Days with 1" or more precip.      1        -0.4       
                                                                   
* departure from 1961-90 normal

Looking ahead to February:

Maxima rise to about 51°
Minima rise to about 35°
Average precipitation is 5.71 inches
There are an average of 18 days with measurable precipitation

Oregon Climate Service

George H. Taylor, Oregon State Climatologist

Wayne P. Gibson, Programmer/GIS mngr.

Mandy Matzke, Research Asst./Manager of Data Services

Kelly Jenson, Undergraduate Assistant

Melanie Mitchell, Student Assistant

Sandra Terra, Undergraduate Assistant

Oregon Climate Service, Strand 316,                                  Phone: (541) 737-5705  
Oregon State University                                                      Fax: (541) 737-5710   
Corvallis, Oregon  97331                                                     E-mail: oregon@oce.orst.edu   
                                                                             Web: http://www.ocs.orst.edu