Another Month of Sizzle

August is in the books and it was toasty. No seriously, really toasty. Even though the month did not produce any triple digit temps it did produce some record heat with 11 daily records scattered among both highs and lows. It also produced a month average daily High, Low, and mean temps well above average.

August had 8 days with temperatures above 90º and 25 days with lows above 60º. There were 22 sunny days and just 2 cloudy days. August also failed to produce any measurable rainfall. I did have one day with noticeable drizzle, but it evaporated before hitting the ground or on immediate impact and did not trigger the rain gauge. It was enough to get my arms damp, but that's about it.

The coldest over night low was 57.1º on the morning of the 28th and the coolest afternoon high was a mark of 74.3º on the 27th. Ok so those "cold" temps are not very cold at all, what about the heat? Well the warmest temp recorded last month was a toasty 97.8º on the 30th and that was a daily high record. Some areas around the Metro area did top 100º on the 30th and on the 7th but triple digits stayed away from my station. There were a total of 3 days above 95º among those 8 above 90º.  Only 6 days in August failed to reach 80º and 19 days topped out above 85º. Keep in mind that the average August high temperature in my 21 years of recording is just 81.09º and 70s are common highs in August. Not this year! The warmest overnight low was a toasty 72.9º on the 18th. 

The month's average low was 62.42º and the average daily high was 85.51º. Overnight lows were really the story for August 2022. There was just a single day all month long that was cooler than average for the overnight low. In fact the average overnight low was a full FIVE DEGREES above my 21 year "normal." Daily highs were 4.5º above my average. August had a mean temperature a bit warmer than July. Overall the summer has been Kathy toasty despite having a modest number of "heat waves." 

Not much to talk about on the precipitation, there was none. Typically August does get something usually an inch or so, but it is not at all uncommon to have a completely dry August or July for that matter. 

September started off with a heavy marine layer that likely settled in on the evening of the 31st at the coast and spent the whole night and part of the morning pushing inland along the Columbia River. After a 110 miles it finally arrived in the metro area around 7 or 8 this morning. That's the first time in quite awhile I have seen any marine action this far inland. Perhaps the onshore flow will cool us down a little this month.

These next few weeks will mark the end of summer and as the month progresses it is quite likely we will notice a bit of chilliness in the evenings replacing our typical summer warm evenings. Autumn is lurking in the near distance, and I welcome her.