8:30pm Sunday
Yesterday was “reasonably hot” but today the furnace went into “hot blast” mode, hitting 99 degrees in both Portland & Salem. It was the 2nd hottest day of summer here in Portland.
The Dalles and Hermiston both hit at least 107, both the hottest so far this summer
That puts our streak of 90 degree days up to 8. That’s rare in Portland
Note we’ve only had one longer stretch…10 days during that brutal July 2009 heatwave. That year we hit 106 on two consecutive days with lows above 70 for two nights:
We didn’t have any offshore flow today, no easterly wind to help drive temps to 100, or higher. That’s been something interesting about both heatwaves this summer; even with weak onshore flow we’ve been able to get close to or hit 100 degrees. I’ve been forecasting in Portland coming up on 27 years this fall…seems like it’s “easier” to get hot weather nowadays with the same upper-level setups. That said, it was +23 deg. Celsius when the weather balloon hit the 850 millibar level about Salem this afternoon. It doesn’t get much hotter than that. Easterly wind would have pushed us up into the 101-103 degree range. Luckily we didn’t get that.
Tomorrow there will only be minor changes. First the upper-level atmosphere cools just slightly. Then the onshore flow should be just SLIGHTLY stronger; although I doubt that’ll change much except drop temps maybe 5 degrees. The 3rd? Fire smoke is on the way. Upper-level wind has turned southerly the past 6 hours, which “opens the door” for all those fires in southwest Oregon and northern California to send their smoke northward. This image is from midday today. But I can now see the thick smoke approaching from the south on our Skyline Camera.
The HRRR experimental smoke modeling shows that it reaches the Columbia River before sunrise
Yuck…expect a sickly yellow-ish sun in most of Oregon and the southern edges of Washington Monday. As we saw a couple of times last summer, a thick layer of smoke can drop the temperature well below the forecast high. If the smoke suddenly thickens during the night, it could keep us even warmer than forecast during the nighttime hours. We’ll see how that turns out tomorrow.
Regardless of exact high temp Monday, we’ll see our 15th day of the month at/above 90 degrees. We’ve never seen more than 14 in any one month; that will be a new record for PDX
When do we cool off? All models are in very good agreement that we see some significant cooling Wednesday, down into the 80s. But wait, an upper-level trough swinging through gives us a big marine push for Thursday & Friday. Those days could be at least half cloudy with morning clouds lingering until at least noon. Yes, it’s possible we get a few days only in the 70s…a glorious start to August. In fact it’s quite interesting that just as August begins on Wednesday, we go into a much cooler weather pattern. Take a look at the ECMWF ensemble temps for Portland:
This implies the first 10 days of August will actually be BELOW average with plenty of cloud cover. A huge change. One more thing, 45 of 51 ECMWF ensemble members give us some significant (think spring) showers the early/mid part of NEXT week. It’s centered around the 6th-9th of August. I’ll take a closer look tomorrow, but this could impact agricultural interests that are used to dry conditions in early August.
Try to stay cool on Monday!
Chief Meteorologist Mark Nelsen
Oops! Should have said Monday through Thursday.
I sure hope we are headed toward a major colder than normal period soon. The heat and drier weather is causing more wildfires every year. The woods are as dry as early September right now. Hopefully August will be a record cold one.
I’ve never been a big fan of summer heat
and I find it depressing that we’re constantly
breaking heatwave records. Whatever is
causing it I believe we should try to something
about it! I know that I certainly don’t want
to live in a hotter and hotter world. 😦
The only meaningful thing you can do, as an individual, is not breed. Not having children is many orders of magnitude more significant to reducing your carbon footprint than everything else combined (recycling, hybrid car, solar panels, etc.).
Beyond not breeding, there’s not much one can do. Even if you were the U.S. President, you’ll never stop China, India, Russia, the EU block and many smaller countries from polluting. It simply will never happen. Too much breeding, too many people, too much fossil fuels. Period. Future is doomed, accept it.
102.4 at my place yesterday, 66 for an overnight low. Definitely smokey skies when I got up this morning, the low sunlight was a deep copper color. Thankfully it’s not in the air at the surface… yet.
Some free sky water would be welcome and appreciated, especially if it comes with some thunder.
BELOW NORMAL!!!! WOOT!!! Bring it on!!
A high of 91 for me yesterday- still second to the hot 93 we had earlier in June, but the overnight minimum was warmer. Comparing mean temperatures for this July and July 2015 up til the 29th, it’s almost dead even for me-. so there is a chance this will end up being my warmest July on record. I’m amazed- again.
I had an 88 in June and an 87 for yesterday (I think). I say “I think” because I was away from home for a week, but I’m assuming my warmest day of the last 7 corresponded with everyone else’s. Was in eastern Washington (in the mountains above 6,000 feet elevation for the most part, but did have to travel via the valleys and the Meathow Valley was really baking yesterday by noon). I see most stations there recorded maxes in the mid 90s to 100. Plus there was a new forest fire starting on one of the ridges above the North Cascades Highway.
Low of 60. Warmest low since September 9th last year. Very smoky too, made for a nice sunrise.
I went out to Dave & Buster’s with a friend last night and when I was coming home I saw the moon. It was shrouded in smoke. It was a brilliant red. It was kind of amazing to see. All was missing was a Halloween song…lol
Looking forward to the cooler temperatures. I have a idea on what could be happening with the upcoming weather (I’m thinking a couple months ahead) but I want to see how next week pans out. 😉
Wait, I wanna hear your idea Ken…
It kind of looks like most of the smoke is going to stay east of I-5 tomorrow? Also was wondering some of the models were showing that the heat might last through Wednesday which would break that 90 degree record right? Or have them models cooled off Wednesday since I last checked?
Bring on the cool!