If April showers do really bring May flowers, then hopefully we’re in for a treat this month. But no one is sure what the coldest April in years means.
Rainfall in the Yachats area broke records or were at near-record levels for April, according to weather watchers who report their measurements to YachatsNews.
Donald Tucker, who has been measuring rain, temperature and wind at his house two miles north of Yachats since 2007, had a record 10.40 inches of rain in April. The previous high was 9.92 inches in 2018.
Tucker has measured 28.96 inches of rain so far this year, 0.29 inches less than the fourth-month average for the last 16 years.
The Yachats area is not alone. The National Weather Service said Portland set a record for April rainfall – 5.60 inches – going back to when it started keeping records in 1939.
Rainfall in the foothills of the Coast Range – where it helps municipal water supplies – was equally as plentiful in April.
Jim Adler, who lives three miles up the Yachats River, measured 12.53 inches, the second highest for the month since he began measuring in 2008. He’s recorded 38.66 inches of rain so far this year.
Bob Williams, who lives eight miles up the river, recorded 14.83 inches of rain in April – the most of any month this year — and has 44.85 inches for the year. Jean-Marc Rolland, who lives two miles farther east, measured 14.69 inches in April and has 41.38 inches so far in 2022.
As usual, there was less rain – but still a lot for the month – in downtown Yachats.
At the city of Yachats’ wastewater treatment plant, city crews measured 8.13 inches in April, the highest in three years and two inches more than the average the past 10 years. But, for the first four months of 2022 the city’s rain gauge has measured 23.25 inches – 10 inches below the 10-year average for the first four months of the year.
Adam Altson, who lives just a block away from the plant, recorded 8.98 inches of rain in April, giving him 23.12 inches for the year. But it was the cold temperatures that stood out for Altson. April was colder than January or March, according to Altson’s records, and the coldest April since he began weather-watching in 2014.
“There were only five days that I did not measure any rain at all,” he said. “And in the middle of the month it was particularly cold. We had numerous showers, many with hail, and I thought I saw a snowflake or two in one of the showers.”
