2013 was a really dry year for Oregon. Climate scientists at Oregon State University say it was the driest on record for Eugene despite a soggy September.
Deputy Director of the Oregon Climate Service at OSU Kathie Dello says Eugene saw less than half of its normal precipitation this year. Dello says September brought a lot of rain but not enough to make up for the rest of the year. The snow-storm in early December was very dry. Dello spoke by cell from a ski trip in the Cascades.
Dello: "I'm up on Mt Hood and it's very atypical for this time of year. I think the snow-pack totals are about 25 percent of normal and many bare spots and it's not what you would expect for the end of December."
Dello says there's time to make up for the lack of snowpack in the coming months. But she says because it's not an El Nino or La Nina year -- it's hard to predict the weather.
Dello: "So, really anything goes. We could see a ton of snow in January. It could go either way."
Oregon also experienced extreme temperatures in 2013. Highs this summer were in the 90s for more days than usual. On December 8th the mercury plummeted to 10 below zero in Eugene.
