Portland’s skyline looking north
Jami Dwyer Wikimedia
By Chris Lehman, NW News Network
2014 could be the warmest year on record for both Seattle and Portland.
With about one week left, Seattle is on track to narrowly break the mark set in 1995 for its warmest year on record. Portland is just shy of breaking its 1992 record, but a warmer than normal final week of the year could push the Rose City over the top.
Cory Newman, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Portland, said a hotter-than-normal summer brought up the average temperature in the region.
“And especially that was most notable with overnight low temperatures this summer and early fall,” he said. “A lot of locations were way, way above normal on levels that we haven’t seen.”
But Newman added that 2014 was a year of contrasts. In February, some lower elevation parts of Oregon received their heaviest snowfall in many years.
Boise is not on track to break a warmth record this year. The National Weather Service says 2014 will probably be the 5th or 6th warmest year on record for Idaho’s capital.