April's high temperatures were only slightly below normal for the month. The lowest high temperature of the month was 47° on the 6th, and the highest high temperature of the month was 69° on the 9th. This came out to a 22° range of high temperatures this month. Low temperatures, on the other hand, were slightly above normal. There were no record high or low temperatures. In terms of temperature, the month of April was pretty average as a whole. Overall, temperatures were less than one degree above normal.

On the precipitation side of things the month was very exciting! We recorded an amazing 6.48 inches of precipitation in April, almost 4 inches above normal! April, 2003 goes down as the 4th wettest April on record behind the Aprils of 1937, 1896, and 1993. There was one record setting day of rainfall this month with 0.74 inches on the 21st (old record was 0.58 inches set in 1898). After this month's above normal precipitation Corvallis rose to 43.45 inches of rain for the water year (since Oct. 1). The 30 year average for the entire water year is 43.66 inches. This means that as of April 30th we were only 0.21 inches away from the average for twelve whole months! Expect an above average year in terms of precipitation come the end of September.

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  57.9    -2.8    Days with measurable precip.      26       +10.3   
                                                                         
Average minimum temperature  40.8    +0.9    Days with .10" or more precip.    15       +6.2    
                                                                       
Monthly precipitation        6.48    +3.92   Days with .50" or more precip.    5        +3.6    
                                                                                    
Growing degree days @ 50F     48      -19    Days with 1" or more precip.      0        -0.2       
                                                                   
* departure from 1971-00 normal

Looking ahead to May:

Maxima rise to about 67°
Minima rise to about 44°
Average precipitation is 2.30 inches
There are an average of 13 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