Sizzling in the Summer

July is done and what a month. Great weather if not perhaps a tad heavy on the heat. I did not break the century mark but I did manage to bust out nearly a dozen days in the nineties and that's just about a whole year's worth in one month. July 2018 was almost completely dry and warmer than typical with a couple of days in the upper 90s.

The area saw mostly sunshine and warm temps with just two days exhibiting any precipitation all of which was isolated and very light.

It was a glorious July, a touch too warm for me perhaps, but well within the range of perfection for summertime.

Temps were in fact quite toasty with my station reporting a daily average high of 85.16° a full five degrees warmer than my 17 year "normal" of 80.20°. The overnight lows average in at 57.82° which is nearly two above my "normal". The hottest temperature I recorded last month was a 97.3° on the 29th which was one of two days at 97 plus the other was the 15th. The 97° mark on the 15th was a local daily record for my station. The warmest overnight low came on the evening following the first 97° day with a balmy 64° the morning of the 16th. I measured 11 days at or above 90° and all but two days managed to get above 70°. There was a rogue overnight low in the chilly 40s when the merc dipped to 46° on the 3rd, of course that was the only sub-fifty of the month. The coolest daytime high was the 2nd when I topped out at 67.8°. On both of the days I recorded 97° plus other local areas saw temps tickling the triple digits. Never trust those bank signs sitting in the sun, but the National Weather Service knows how to properly place equipment and they had at least a couple of 100° marks in and around the metro area.

There isn't much to report on the precipitation side of the equation. I measured a total of 0.09 inches. I had a misty drizzle on the 2nd of July and a brief thunderclap with a short rain on the 9th. That's all there is on rain folks, and I like me a good dry July. The "Dog Days" of summer should be free of any annoying sky water, right? 

August is starting out a bit cooler than July ended and I don't mind at all after that toasty month in the rear view mirror. In fact, we may get some showery weather late this week or early next week and that will help wet the forests and repel some of that summer fire danger. A little bit of well timed rain can be a blessing, even in the summer.

On a rain note, we are running quite light this year on rain. Some may like that but I do not. This local eco-system benefits from the consistent rainfall and cloud cover so I'd love to see a nice soggy autumn this year. A little summer shower can take the edge of the fire danger as well. One need only look east of the Cascades or down south in southern Oregon and California to see how bad fires can be when things get too dry for too long.

The year to date rain chart sums up our lack of precip well.

Whatever you do rain or shine, hot of cold, be sure to soak it up my friends, soak it up.

Hello Summer :)

The month of June has retired for 2018 and now summer is really here. Over the course of the next 75 days we shall enjoy the finest weather mother earth has to offer. We earn it every year.

Miss Spring was her typical self this June with some tears, hot flashes, and temper tantrums. Glad that's over, let the summer commence!

June was pretty typical actually with a near dead on average temps over the course of the month. I had an average daily low at 52.45° just a tiny tick above "normal" and the Highs came in at 72.43° also a tick above. Although normal is a collection of extremes as Pat Timm has always pointed out in his weather columns, we didn't have too many "extremes" last month.

The warmest day was the 24th when I read 87.6° one of only three days above 85° all month. The warmest overnight low came in on the 20th with a 61.9° and nearly matched again the next night. The chilliest temp came on the 12th with a 42.1° mark and there was one day that failed to reach 60° and that was the 10th with a very march like 55°.

June gave us 15 days that were mostly sunny and 8 days with some rain. I had several days with thunderstorms including a few short but heavy downpours. We got 4 days above 80° and 17 days above 70°.

Despite some serious downpours, all but one of them were too short to really do much to the rain gauge. The wettest day was the 9th with 0.55 inches and that was the only day above 0.25 inches. Despite the 8 "rainy" days I only managed to collect 1.37 inches of rain and that is another sub-par month. Just 13.99 inches in the bucket at the halfway point and that's a touch under HALF my rolling average.

We are in for a dangerous fire season so please be careful out there. We are about to enter the start of a 60 day period where it is not at all uncommon to have ZERO precipitation. I average about an inch of rain in each of the two summer months, but I have also recorded several July months and August months with no rain at all.

I wouldn't mind having a couple of days in both July and August with a quarter inch or more in the bucket, just to keep things greenish.

So there you have it, the start of the greatest summer on Earth so you drop the top, don the shorts and tanks, and go soak it up my friends, soak it up.