Hurricanes may be blowhards, but have less gusts

The National Weather Service had confirmed that Portland recorded a 78-mile-per-hour wind gust during a destructive Feb. 25 storm, a record-setting blast that not only exceeded hurricane force but blew harder than any of the last five major hurricanes that howled through the city over the last half-century. 

In order of severity, the hurricanes were: Hurricane Edna, Sept. 11, 1954 — 60 mph; Hurricane Bob, Aug. 19, 1991 — 61 mph; Hurricane Carol, Aug. 31, 1954 — 69 mph;  Hurricane Gloria, Sept. 27, 1985 — 70 mph; and Hurricane Donna, Sept. 12, 1960 — 76 mph.

Three non-hurricane related wind gusts — 72 mph on Nov. 12, 1995; 76 mph on Nov. 20, 1945; and 76 mph on March 3, 1947 — also entered the rankings but came up short of matching last month's record-setting gust, the weather service reported.

The fact that Portland's record-setting wind came from a late-winter storm rather than from a hurricane isn't surprising, said Michael Cempa, meteorologist with the weather service in Gray.

"We get these deep coastal storms that are not tropical, and they're more frequent, so if we're going to get those big wind gusts, we see more of them in those types of storms than tropical storms," he said.

"We can get some good winds out of these coastal storms," Cempa said.

The 78-mile-per-hour gust was recorded at the Portland Jetport at 11:34 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 25, the weather service reported.

The Feb. 25 storm also dumped 3.83 inches of rain on Portland, breaking the previous record for Feb. 25 of 3.21 inches set in 1965, which also was the previous high for any calendar day in February, the weather service reported.

"It was all in one storm. It was just that one storm. We had .06 of an inch until that hit," said Cempa.

The storm produced over 5.75 inches of rain over the three-day period of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Feb. 24-26, at the Portland Jetport, the weather service reported.

"Until that storm came, we were stuck in that dry pattern, that warmer drier pattern for us anyway, we were dealing with the low off to our northeast, that protected us, the big low just sat there over the Canadian Maritimes for most of February," Cempa said.

 The storm rolled in quickly.

"It was intensifying fairly rapidly and it was sitting to our south and moving east to west," Cempa recalled.

Steve Capriola, another meteorologist in Gray, compiled a report on the record-setting late-February storm. In it, he wrote: "The 3.83 inches on the 25th was remarkable considering that the normal precipitation for the entire month of February is just 3.14 inches. the monthly total of 6.23 inches was nearly double the normal rainfall and ranks as the 12th wettest February in the past 140 years. it is also interesting to note that for the first 23 days of the month, Portland measured just 0.06 inches of precipitation. This was not far off the mark of the driest February on record which was a mere 0.04 inches of precipitation in 1987. There was a stretch of 11 days, from the 5th through the 15th, with no precipitation in Portland ... and the first 15 days of the month had just a trace of precipitation. But that all changed in a matter of a couple days. By the end of the month Portland topped six inches of rain in February for only the 13th time in 140 years. The wettest February was in 1900 with 9.25 inches of precipitation.

"Since most of the precipitation fell as an extremely heavy rain event it is not surprising that Portland had very little snow in February. in fact the 3.2 inches of snow was nearly 10 inches — 9.6 inches — below normal and ranks as the seventh least snowiest February in the past 129 years of snowfall records. The least snowiest February was 0.3 inches in 1941 while the snowiest February was 61.2 inches in 1969.

"Temperatures were also very mild in February. In fact, this was Portland`s fourth warmest February on record with an average temperature of 30.8 degrees, which is 6.0 degrees above normal. The warmest February was 32.3 degrees in 1981 and the coldest was 15.6 degrees in 1979."

So far, March has come in like a lamb. In the month's first week, the average temperature was 37.6 degrees, which was 7.8 degrees above normal, the weather service reported. The only rainfall in the month came on March 1, with .38 inches.

Cempa said Portlanders can expect more rain in the coming weekend.

"We stay dry until Friday at least, then there's another coastal low that's going to be tracking up the coast again, so we'll probably get some rain in here in time for the weekend," he said.

February 2010 will be remembered for the big rain and wind storm on the 24th, 25th and into the 26th. the storm produced a total rainfall over five inches /5.75 inches/ over the three day period at the Portland Jetport along with a peak wind gust of 78 mph. the peak wind of 78 mph occurred at 11:34 p.m. on the 25th. This was one of the strongest wind gusts ever measured at Portland ... higher than five notable hurricanes to have impacted the city. Here is a list of extreme wind gusts in Portland...

Peak gust date remarks:

78 mph — Feb. 25, 2010

76 mph — Nov. 20, 1945

76 mph — March 3, 1947

76 mph —Sept. 12, 1960; Hurricane Donna

72 mph — Nov. 12, 1995

70 mph — Sept. 27, 1985: Hurricane Gloria

69 mph — Aug. 31, 1954; Hurricane Carol

61 mph — Aug. 19, 1991; Hurricane Bob

60 mph — Sept. 11, 1954; Hurricane Edna

Ten wettest days in February

1. 3.83 inches — Feb. 25, 2010

2. 3.21 inches — Feb. 25, 1965

3. 3.06 inches — Feb. 22, 1898

4. 2.95 inches — Feb. 10, 1885

5. 2.75 inches — Feb. 19, 1960

6. 2.54 inches — Feb. 13, 2008

7. 2.51 inches — Feb. 26, 1934

8. 2.45 inches — Feb. 5, 1920

9. 2.37 inches — Feb. 18, 1952

10. 2.31 inches — Feb. 18, 1998

Precipitation records began in 1871. SOURCE: SOURCE: Steve Capriola, meteorologist report, National Weather Service