I take care of several local orchards and have been finding huge amounts of fruit drop and poor setting near Astoria. Apples, cherry, plum, very weak production in the orchards. Do you know if this is common, or what causes it?
What you describe is generally a result of significant wet weather patches when orchard trees are blooming.
Pollinators in rainy weather
The honeybee is not a good traveler in wet weather, so pollination success drops way off. There are also some issues with honeybees and a mite that have depleted the honeybee population. Many beekeepers lost their colonies over this winter/early spring.
Mason bees can fill the gap since they are native and willing to fly between showers. They also don't fly as far, so a gardener that has supported them will generally have better pollination results.
Frost on fruit tree blooms
One additional factor is the series of frosts during bloom where it is cloudy/cool during the day and then cleared up at night with temperatures below freezing. That effect was very site specific with one garden affected and one less than a quarter mile away, not. Wind flow and cold air sinking and pooling were quite evident in some locations.
