Oregon Climate Service, August 2003

Overview

August was another warm and dry month, but not as warm nor as dry as July had been. Most temperatures statewide were above normal, but generally only by a few degrees. And while July was extremely dry, with zero values reported at many locations, August's rainfall, while mostly below normal, was mostly "nonzero."


Table 1 is a summary of monthly averages and totals at selected stations throughout the state. Table 2 lists daily temperatures and precipitation for most of the locations listed in Table 1. In Table 3, monthly and seasonal precipitation totals throughout the state are listed. Figure 1 shows the percentage of seasonal precipitation statewide.

Basin Summary

Here is a summary of precipitation, water supply, and snow pack as of the end of the month, by river basin:

Precipitation

Stream Flow

 SWSI
BASIN

(1)

(2)

(3)

 (4)

(5)

(6)
OWYHEE 99 83 89 53 26 -2.3
MALHEUR 74 89 94 5 12 -1.4
GRAND RONDE, POWDER, BURNT 65 87 88 85 90 -1.7
UMATILLA, WALLA WALLA, WILLOW 107 97 89 79 97 -1.0
UPPER JOHN DAY 65 89 85 30 70 -0.3
UPPER DESCHUTES, CROOKED 93 79 71 73 58 -0.6
LOWER DESCHUTES, HOOD RIVER 36 93 80 71 74 -2.1
WILLAMETTE 33 95 81 91 87 +0.9
ROGUE, UMPQUA 67 101 71 91 92 +0.1
KLAMATH 96 96 89 77 72 -2.3
LAKE COUNTY, GOOSE LAKE 59 84 85 75 70 -0.1
HARNEY 67 89 90 67 70 -0.7
NORTH COAST 23 90 n.a. 77 92 -0.6
SOUTH COAST 14 94 n.a. 92 106 +0.4

n.a. Not available

(1) Percent of normal March precipitation, from NOAA Cooperative sites
(2) Percent of normal seasonal precipitation (since Oct. 1), from NOAA Cooperative sites
(3) Percent of normal seasonal precipitation, from Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) SNOTEL sites
(4) Percent of normal snow water equivalent, from NRCS SNOTEL sites
(5) Percent of normal March stream flow, from U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
(6) Percent of normal seasonal stream flow (since Oct. 1), from USGS
(7) Surface Water Supply Index, from NRCS (-4 = very dry, 0 = normal, +4 = very wet)

Forecast

For our Fall and Winter Forcast for 2003-2004, please see http://www.ocs.orst.edu/reports/wint03/wint03.html.


Oregon Climate Service

George H. Taylor, Oregon State Climatologist

Wayne P. Gibson, Programmer/GIS mngr.

Mandy Matzke, Research Assistant/Manager of Data Services

Melanie Mitchell, Undergraduate Assistant

Derek Gilbert, Undergraduate Assistant

Wolf Read, Undergraduate Assistant

Emily Gibson, Student 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.oregonstate.edu