Soggy June, Hello July

Yes we had a wetter than average June my friends and by a pretty soggy margin. I measured 3.63 inches of the drippy stuff compared to the more typical 2.47 inches in June. Full disclosure there were a few systems that came through and dropped large amounts of rain and other areas around the metro may have had more or less. But the sun was certainly not in abundance last month. June is not typically a sunny month anyhow. The curse of the Rose Festival Low tends to wreck half the month. This year it was more or less around all month long.

The temps were about spot on average for June with slightly warmer overnight values. These higher lows came largely due to an abundance of cloudy nights. The warmest day was a toasty 90.4° on the 23rd, the only time I saw a ninety in June, and only the second such mark all year. It was also a daily record high for the date. The coolest daytime high was a early spring like, 57.2° on the 5th. Overnight the warmest was 61.9° on the 23rd which led to that lone 90 plus later that day, and was one of 6 days with overnight lows in the 60s. The chilliest temp came on the 1st with a 49.3° reading one of two nights that couldn't stay above 50. June gave us 16 days with temps above 70° five of which were above 80° including the lone 90.

June managed to stay mostly cloudy with just 5 sunny days all month. 10 days featured rain the heaviest of which occurred on the 7th when 1.13 inches fell one of two days with more than 1/2 inch. There were 6 days with more than 1/4 inch of rain. Over all June was definitely a lot more spring than summer and that is typically the case with June.

July is starting off a bit like June ended, but even if we have a sub-par summer, July and August will have abundant sunshine and gorgeous warm days lie ahead.

So get out and soak it up my friends, soak it up.

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.

June is Gone and Summer has Arrived!

The first official day of summer has come and gone and so has the month of June. Here in the Northwest June is tends to be a spring month, not a summer month. June did bring with it some very summery weather including the hottest day I have recorded since the all time record high was set back in July of 2009. That was also the first triple digit heat I have recorded in nearly two years, the last time was, July 30th, 2015.

After a cooler than average trend that began in December last year and continued through last month, June emerged a tad warmer than average and a touch on the dry side as well.

June produced two days in excess of 90° at my location including that scorcher on the 25th when the mercury when stratospheric at 103.6°. That toasty warm daytime high was helped by a relatively warm overnight low of 63.1°. That was the warmest overnight low of the year. Despite the blistering heat mark set last month June was not without its chilly moments. True to form, the late spring weather did produce four nights in the 40s including the chilliest night on the 5th when the bottom came at 43°. The coldest daytime high arrived on the 12th when I failed to reach 60° for the first of two sub 60s in a row. The 12th was 58.1° followed by a crisp 59.4° on the 13th. June gave us 17 days above 70°, seven of which busted out over 80°, two days above 90°, and the aforementioned single day above 100°.

Rainfall came in light of my 16 year "normal" but well within typical June fluctuations. The bucket caught 1.46 inches of rain. June had some scattered thunderstorm activity that probably pushed nearby stations well above 2 inches, but my station seemed to avoid those downpours this time 'round. The soggiest day came on the 15th when I saw 0.51 inches and that was one of just two days where I recorded more than 1/4 inch.

The ever so fickle, Miss Spring was in control of June with bouts of both chilly and hot weather. We enjoyed a delicious 16 days of sunshine against just 8 days of rain, most of which was drizzly in nature. Heading into July it looks like we will have rather typical summer weather for the next several days. The NWS in Portland has this forecast this morning.



The metro Portland-Vancouver region enjoys some of the best summer weather on this planet. Temps don't like to get above ninety much and triple digits are worthy of front page headlines. We simply bask in mildly warm, mostly sunny days for the next 75 days or so.

Summer has arrived so soak it up my friends, soak it up.

Summer Season is here, but Summer is not.

The merry month of May is in the books and statistically is was pretty darn 'normal'. Overnight lows averaged almost dead 'normal' and the average daily high was about a degree above 'normal'. Rainfall came in well under normal but May is a month with a wide range of variance so it was really pretty typical. The Memorial Day Weekend was pretty nice with mid eighties on Saturday and Sunday and a mild 76° on Monday. June is starting off cloudy and damp and that is typical as well. For most of America, June kicks off the summer season. Here on the west side of the Cascade mountains, June remains firmly in the grasp of spring and her volatile moods.

Temperatures were literally a roller coaster ride on the chart. On May 4th we had a nice sunny 83.1° for the high and it was followed by a chilly 59.5° on Cinco de Mayo. So went the whole month.

The only hot day was the 22nd when my thermometer topped at at exactly 90° the only reading to breech the nineties all month. I had eight days with a reading in the eighties or better and ten days that failed to reach 60°. The warmest overnight low came on the 4th with a summerish 56.5° and the coolest temperature came the morning of the 1st when it was a nippy 37.9°. That was one of four mornings that dipped into the thirties overnight. Such is the fickle nature of spring time in the Northwest. The chilliest daytime high was a cool 52° on the 13th.

As for the rainfall it shows up as below average but really May is often beset with light thunderstorms and scattered showers. My rainfall was light but other ares very near me probably recorded above average rainfall. I had nary a day above 1/4 inch of rain and just 8 days with precipitation. That said there were a couple of days where the region had strong thunderstorms including one that triggered an alert from the "Emergency Broadcast Network". That alert was for the northern part of Clark County where serious lightning strikes, flash flooding, and golf ball size hail were coming down. I got light showers during that event. Another amazing light show went on for nearly two hours to my south, but again the rain from that one missed me. So 1.24 inches was my bucket total for May well under my 3.25 average. The wettest day was the 16th with 0.24 inches.

June will likely be a roller coaster for the first half before we see a summer pattern develop. Such it is in late spring. May and June tend to be unpredictable. But the next sic weeks will deliver long, long, long daylight as we move into that period where we have 18 hours of light, dawn to dusk. Cloudy or not, that is good stuff :)

Cool July, Nice, Very Nice!

'Nice' is an apt description for the month of July we just enjoyed. Sure there was that one week that was cloudy and even a bit showery, but the rainfall stats were still slightly lower than my 15 year normal. Temps were about 3 degrees cooler than my normal as well. After the last couple of blazing hot summers, I'll take a cooler more typical summer and love it.

The stats played out typical across the board and there were few extremes this past month. The average observed daily high was 76.67 about three shy of the typical 79.71. the average observed overnight low was a very typical 55.35 against a normal of 56.18.

The warmest temperature I recorded was 91.8 degrees on the 28th one of just two days above 90 degrees last month the other a 90.9 mark on the 29th. The coolest temperature was a fairly nippy for July 46.2 the morning of the 14th. That was one of two sub 50 marks in July. The chilliest daytime high came on the 4th of July of all days when I was stuck at 65.3 degrees. Fortunately for all the Independence Day crazies here in the 'Couv' it was a mostly clear day and night. The warmest overnight low arrived on the 21st following a nice 84.9 degrees earlier with 63.7.

The rain bucket got five days of action but only two with any real rain the 7th and 8th with 0.15 and 0.38 inches respectively. The whole month had a fairly typical but less than average 0.70 inches measured against 1.02 as "normal".

That was just a fantastic month. My son Kyle, is in the Army and is stationed at Fort Polk, LA. He will be coming out for a visit next week and believe me he will love our cool weather even if we end up having a heat wave. He has endured routine daily highs in the upper 90s with humidity pushing the heat index well above 120 degrees! Yuck!

So with that in mind get outside and soak it up my friends; soak it up!

The Waning days of Summer

This latest round of 90 degree weather may be our summer swan song. Temps are expected to drop 15 degrees or so over the next few days and we may even see a little wet stuff over the week end. September is a month that is generally quite pleasant. Sure we will have a little rain mixed in with sunshine. But the real indicator that change is eminent is felt in those cooler September nights. Enjoy the last of August and as I always say, soak it up my friends; soak it up.

Heavenly

Yeah, that's about the size of it these past few days. Just perfect warm but not hot summer weather. This is why we endure the dark and gloomy winter :) Soak it up my friends, soak it up.

A Little Crackle, Boom and Splash

Oh the monotony of summer with those endless days of gorgeous sunshine and comfortably warm temperatures. We needed a little break didn't we? Well we got that to be certain. Yesterday I had 0.47 inches of rain in the bucket and today I had 0.51. That is nearly an inch in the last 36 hours! All that splash was accompanied by the boom and crackle of good 'ole thunder and lightning. ell we hit our average for the month so we should be done, right? Right! The temps were nice and cozy in the upper sixties and low seventies. But that will change here for the last weekend in July. It will be back to those monotonous boring perfect summer days... ho hum ;)

Soak it up my friends, soak it up.

Another sunny and warm day... ho hum... ;)

Summers in the 'Couv' are awesome. Sweet mother of the solar system, look at that sunshiny, golden goodness out there. Ok so it's a security cam picture, so what it still awesome out there :)

We should get more of this through Saturday afternoon but just a tad cooler maybe around 80 degrees. Then chance of summer showers then more sunny yummies after that.

Soak it up my friends, soak it up!

Fabulous warm weather will continue!

Yes it will. But today we are going to have a brief departure from the saucy sunshine and experience some summer thunderstorms. The rumble and boom of mother nature will remind us that the Pacific Northwest is not immune to a little violence in the atmosphere. Hug your pets and batten down the hatches, this will be a brief but bumpy ride this afternoon.

The rest of the week looks like more yummy summerliciousness. I invented a new word. Soak it up my friends, soak it up.

Summerlicious!

Fabulous summer weather continues with 80s all around. That big yellow orb is taking its sweet time as it dances across the sky for 16 hours before offering a long twilight glow to match our warm summer evenings. it is summerlicious!

June is gone and Hello Hot July

The month of June is in the books and it was par for the course. Rain was a touch on the light side and temps were spot on for my 13 year average.

We had just two days with a temperature at 80 degrees or more and a total of only eight hours of eighties. The warmest temp was on the last day of the month with a nice 82.9 degrees. The warmest overnight low came on the evening of the 26th with a comfortable 58.8. The coldest temp came on the 5th with a chilly 45.1 and the coolest afternoon high was a moderate 56.4 on the 17th. we had 15 days with temps in the 70s including eleven in a row from the 1st to the 11th

The rain gauge picked up 1.96 inches for the month roughly a 1/2 inch lower than "normal". The wettest day was the 26th when 0.64 inches fell.

Overall June was pretty uneventful on the weather front. July however has other ideas. My weather station was seriously flirting with 97 degrees today. I had 96.9 this afternoon. What the heck is that all about? The east winds blew on and off and that brought the dry heat from the other side of the Cascades. Don't forget that the center part of the "Evergreen State" is actually a desert!

Looking ahead to the all important 4th of July weekend it looks like a nice warm and dry experience this year :)

That look s real nice... soak it up my friends, soak it up!

Come out summer, it's time to come out...

What a wild and wet week this has been. The weather has had a bit of a tropical flavor with warm rain and peek-a-boo sunshine. The national Weather Service in Portland is calling for warm and sunny starting early next week and extending towards the 4th of July Holiday. Eighties, baby, 80s :)

Yes you saw that right, so get ready to soak it up my friends, soak it up.

Summertime is here...probably.

Yesterday was the summer solstice. The longest day of the year here in the northern hemisphere. Isn't that warm twilight sky awesome at 10 o'clock? Yes it is. The Pacific Northwest region can't get too excited about summer until the booms and bangs of Independence day are through. It isn't until Uncle Sam's birthday arrives that summertime is really secured. But my how that summer is so sweet. 75 glorious days of sunshine and warm temps with a light that lingers well into the late evening.

The solstice turned out to be quite nice after the clouds cleared out in the afternoon. I had a nice, comfy mid to upper 70s under brilliant sunshine. Hello summer. get out and soak that up my friends, soak it up.

Warm dry and soggy too So goes June in the 'Couv'

Our neighbors south of the Columbia enjoyed nice summery weather for the Rose Festival which seems to be a rarity. The Rose Festival low as it is affectionately called, was delayed this year. But fickle spring was not to be denied her angry bouts of wet temper. This whole last week was a cloudy display of drips and raging downpours.

I have openly pondered the notion that perhaps this year we will have a summer that actually gets underway in June. Some weather experts seem to think that an extended period of warm and dry weather is eminent. I don't know too many people that would not welcome an early summer.

Whatever the weather get out and soak it up my friends, soak it up.

June is Here :)

Wow it is actually June. I love June. June marks the beginning of those ridiculously long summer nights. The Summer Solstice is upon us with an arrival in just about three weeks. Nearly 16 hours of sunshiny goodness and at least 4 more hours of beautiful twilight. If you are an astronomy buff this is the sucky time ;) We only manage to get about 3.5 hours of astronomical dark sky. You need to be observing from 11:30 pm to 3:00 am. Yikes!

It's worth it though. Summer is on its way and I am excited about it. But before I jump up and down with glee that the rains will begin to subside and the sun will warm us into glorious 80s... let's take a peek at the numbers for a very bouncy May.

May opened up with the first 90 degree temp of the year on the 1st of the month with a 90.1 degree reading. That was not enough to top the chart for the whole month as the 14th mustered up a toasty 90.3 degrees. Average highs across the whole of May were 69.28 degrees quite warmer than the "normal" 66.56. In fact the merry month of May produced five days above 80 degrees and another six in the 70s. The chilliest daytime high was on the 9th with a 53.2 degree reading under heavy rain and hail. But we can't complain since 26 of May's 31 days managed to get above 60 degrees.

May was also a bit balmy overnight this year. Average low temps were 49.43 degrees about 3 above the normal 46.77. The coldest low temp came on the 7th with an April-ish 39.7 degrees. Some of the outlying areas got a little frost that day, not here though. The warmest night of the month came on the 23rd with a very July-like 57.3 degrees.

Precipitation was close to normal. My rain gauge is out of commission so I used the numbers from the "Orchards North" station, very nearby. I think I actually got a little more rain than showing on the chart but it is close. 3.20 inches of wet stuff and a couple of days with a thick coating of hail on the ground. We had some bumpy T-storms rumble through a few times this past month. The wettest day was a sloppy 1.17 inches. There were 5 days with more than quarter inch of rain and 16 days of delicious sunshine.

The forecast is for 70s and even a few 80s over the next week and so Portland's Rose festival should be just peachy. Get out and soak it up my friends, soak it up!

A Return to Unsettled Weather

So it begins, our late summer slide into the Autumn. The mistress of heat has played what was perhaps her final hand. The heat wave is over and we have a return to unsettled weather. Thunder and lightning awaited us this morning and the prognosticators of the atmosphere have proclaimed this shall continue through the middle of the week. The forecast is not bad, just a thump and bump and some showers to share till the end of the week when the 80s make a brief return. Soak it up my friends, soak it up :)

How about that Thunderstorm on Labor Day Night?

We had quite a light show on display across the region on the evening of Labor Day and into Tuesday's wee hours. More unsettled weather is in the forecast as the week progresses. Worry not however, the temps are comfortably mild and the sun shall return for one final curtain call before Autumn lowers the proverbial boom :)

One of my followers has sent out a press release on behalf of a local Dentist here in the 'Couv'. It seems that Dr. Bowyer is offering free dental mouth guards to athletes in the area as a community service. Below is a copy of that press release, get out there and soak it up my friends, soak it up and by all means be safe about it.

With the start of the new school year, Vancouver dentist Dr. Bowyer is giving away free mouth guards to student-athletes.  “Every year, I treat children with chipped or breaking teeth from their student activities, which can easily be prevented with consistent use of a mouth guard,” says Dr. Bowyer.

The National Youth Sports Safety Foundation estimates that more than three million teeth and over would be knocked out each year without the use of mouth guards.  This includes preventing over 200,000 serious dental injuries.  Student athletes are over 60 times more likely to suffer a dental injury when not using a mouth guard.  The most common injuries are flying elbows to the mouths, and impact from sports equipment.  Traditional contact sports, such as football, boxing, and martial arts require mouth guards.  Mouth guards should also be used in non-contact sports, including basketball, baseball, soccer, and wrestling.

Likewise, mouth guards help protect athletes from concussions.  Upon impact, a mouth guard helps an athlete clench the jaw muscles, thereby helping to stabilize the skull and neck.  Mouth guards distribute and dissipate the force of an impact, minimizing the severity of traumatic injury to the head and soft tissue.

Finally, a common mistake students make with mouth guards is infrequent replacement and sanitization.  Unsanitary mouth guards increase the intensity of mouth cuts and abrasions, increasing chances of infection from bacteria, yeast, and fungi that mouth guards routinely collect.  Also, mouth guards should be replaced regularly, or when edges become sharp or jagged, or if the mouth guard no long fits and promotes oral irritation.

“I can not stress enough the importance of athletes wearing a mouth guard, especially for those wearing braces” says Dr. Bowyer.  “Parents should consider a mouth guard as mandatory safety equipment.”

From Sept. 4th to Sept 30^th (M-TH), Dr. Boywer is providing these free mouth guards to anyone who stops by his office – children and adults alike.  Dr. Bowyer’s office is located at 300 SE 120^th Ave, Suite 700, Vancouver, WA  98683, 360-253-2640.

About Dr. Bowyer: Dr.  Bowyer is a Vancouver native.  He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington, and a dentistry degree from the Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery.  After completing his second year, Dr. Bowyer was one of two students selected  to participate in an honors program at the 5^th Avenue Manhattan Dental Clinic.    Dr. Bowyer has taught at Clark College School of Hygiene, and has taught as an assistant to 1-3 year dental students.  Dr. Bowyer has been awarded from the Academy of General Dentistry and honored by Columbia University as the Best General Practitioner in his class.  Dr. Bowyer is a member of the American Dental Association, Washington State Dental Society, American Academy of General Dentistry, AAOI (Academy of Osseointegration) and the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry.

August is in the Books

Another gorgeous Northwest month has come and gone. August was stellar, with near perfect weather the whole month long. It started off a touch on the cool side and offered up a little wet stuff towards the end. Even the wet days were quite pleasant however.

The stats were pretty standard for the month of August. I showed not one day above 90 degrees. The official station at Pearson logged two at exactly 90 degrees, however. The warmest day here in Northeast Vancouver was 88.3 degrees on the 6th the coolest afternoon high was the 63.3 on the 1st. The warmest evening was the 64.5 on the 29th and the coolest temp was recorded on the evening of the 21st with a low of 51.6 degrees. We had five days with precipitation exceeding 0.03 inches with the only real soaker being the 26th with a damp 0.49 inches. El sol blazed the big blue sky for 20 days. The total rainfall for the month was a less than average 0.89 inches.

It was yet another month of paradise in our 75 days of summer. Alas, it is now September. The Autumn plunge is lurking on the near horizon. Tomorrow is Labor Day and we could see some showers, although the NWS suggests that is only a slight chance. The remainder of the week should be unsettled with scattered thunderstorms.

We will likely have a few warm to hot days as the first part of September fades to the latter half and we start to feel that fall chill. The plunge begins now with the historical average temperature for the 1st of September at 80 degrees and the average for the 30th is just a touch above 70. The 10 degree plunge is followed in October by a 14 degree drop, then November with her 11 degrees till we bottom out around the end of the year. It happens fast so get out and enjoy these last few 80s and maybe a bonus 90 before the plunge puts a chill on your outdoor activities. You know what to do. Soak it up my friends, soak it up :)