Yes, April was extremely dry around Yachats — the lowest amount of any available record

April was the driest month in Yachats on any available record – measuring less than 20 percent of average for the area.

The rain gauge operated by the city of Yachats measured 1.11 inches for April. The monthly average over the past 11 years is 6 inches.

Most of the month’s rain fell on just one day – Saturday, April 24 – when more than an inch was recorded at various spots around Yachats.

Jim Adler, who lives three miles up the Yachats River, measured 1.92 inches in April. Adler has been keeping records since 2009 and the lowest previous rainfall amounts in April were 5-6 inches.

Adam Altson, who has a manual rain gauge just a block from the city’s gauge, measured 1.57 inches of rain in April. Donald Tucker, who lives two miles north of Yachats on the east side of U.S. Highway 101, recorded 1.27 inches.

Most of the area’s rain last month came on one day – Saturday, April 24. Adler measured 1.11 inches that day; Altson 1.13 that Saturday through 7 a.m. Sunday.

Altson had just four days of measureable rain; Adler had seven.

So far this year, the city has recorded 25.64 inches of rain – compared with an average rainfall amount of 33.03 inches for the first four months of the year.

Yachats was not alone.

The National Weather Service said the gauge at its headquarters near Portland International Airport measured 0.39 inches of rain – the driest April on its records dating back to 1941.

The other interesting weather phenomenon in April was the big spike in temperature on Friday, April 16. Altson recorded a high temperature of 83.7 degrees that day. He said it was 60 degrees at 2 p.m. that day, then over 80 degrees by 3:10 p.m.

The average high temperature for April, according to Tucker’s records going back 15 years, is 55.6 degrees.

According to Tucker’s records, which he sends into a National Weather Service database, “the high and low temp numbers are clearly moving up on average … this appears to correlate with the trends that are coming out of the Weather Service offices. In summary it is getting warmer on average bit by bit.”

“Interestingly, what is basically unchanged over the 15 years is the yearly rainfall amount when averaged,” Tucker said in an email to YachatsNews. “But without question the averages over time for the highs and lows is moving slowly up.”