Yes, some parts of the Portland/Vancouver Metro area received as much rain this weekend as through the last 11 weeks combined.  But before you celebrate a good irrigation soaking rain, think again as statistics can be deceiving.  Yes, we had a "rainy" weekend but depending on where you were, the rainfall amount was vastly different.  The further north you were, the more rain you got.  See the graph below which indicates the rainfall amounts from the official weather stations around Portland.  PDX received .54" while Aurora received .10" and Salem and McMinnville only received a trace.  If you were south, you may have received negligible rain.  

This is not uncommon with summer rain and a small problem when operating weather based irrigation.  We pull weather data off several regional weather stations in the Portland area but the rainfall variability can be very geographically specific.  Luckily this geographically variable summer rain does not occur that often making it little impact to water management.  What it does mean is that just because it rained, irrigation may still be needed.  

Warm week coming up!

It has been cool and wet but the weather is heading back to hot and dry where it will likely stay over the next week or two.  Nice we got a little relief but summer is not over yet.  It has been a long summer already due to the early start but we have a long way to go.