By Noel Gallagher, staff writer
Portland Press Herald news story It wasn’t just your imagination: This winter was Portland’s second-warmest on record, according to the National Weather Service.
The average temperature in Portland during the meteorological winter – December, January and February – was 31.2 degrees, just a tenth of a degree below the record of 31.3 degrees, set in 2001-02.
All season long, there were record-breaking weather trends.
December 2015 was the warmest December on record in Portland, with an average temperature of 38 degrees, easily breaking the previous record average of 34.8 degrees, set in 2001.
On Christmas Day, Portland’s temperature soared to 62 degrees, smashing the previous Christmas record high of 53, set in 2014 and 1994. And that was just one of five days in the winter of 2015-16 that set records for high temperatures.
Over the three-month period, the temperature rose to 50 degrees or higher on 21 days, breaking the record of 14 days, set in 1949-50.
Portland also had its second-latest snowfall at the start of the season, on Dec. 29.
There were wild swings in temperatures, as well. Portland went from 10 below zero on Feb. 15 to 50 degrees the next day, according to the National Weather Service.
And to start meteorological spring, the chilly weather in the single digits and 20s this week will switch to spring-like temperatures in the 50s by the middle of next week, forecasters say.
Globally, 2015 was the hottest year in 136 years of record-keeping, according to separate records kept by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA.
