After Friday, the third consecutive day of mid-90-degree heat, today should feel like a relief with a predicted high of 83.
Get used to it, says a meteorologist.
“It will be the last day of 90-degree heat for a while,” said Dave Elson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Portland, on Friday. “Over the next few days, marine air will cool things down a bit and temperatures will top out in the low to mid-80s.”
But Clark County still had to endure another sizzling day. The thermometer peaked at 95 degrees just before 4 p.m. Friday at Vancouver’s Pearson Field, according to the National Weather Service. This came after 95-degree and 97-degree scorchers Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
Officials had feared smog levels would rise as the heat wave wore on and continued a smog alert through Friday for the Vancouver-Portland area. But the levels of ground-level ozone remained moderate in the afternoon, thanks in part to a steady breeze circulating the region.
“We think we are OK,” said Paul Mairose, chief engineer for the Southwest Clean Air Agency. “We are not going to see an exceedance.”
The call volume for emergency officials also didn’t seem to spike Friday. Vancouver firefighter-spokesman Jim Flaherty said he didn’t know of any emergency calls relating to heat-related illnesses, though that’s not to say they weren’t out there.
“I would call this a typical, steady Friday,” he said, adding that dehydration or heat stroke calls could still come well into the evening. “What we may see this evening are the effects of being out in a long day in the sun.”
The predicted cooling trend should extend through the beginning of next week, with temperatures dipping into the high 70s, a tad below normal for the time of year, Elson said, when average temperatures usually stay in the low 80s. With the cooler weather may come a few clouds.
No need to worry about encountering another abnormally cold string of days, however.
“I would still call (this weekend and next week) pretty close to normal,” Elson said. “At this point, we’re in July and August and it gets really hard for us to get in a period like we were in June.”
Laura McVicker: 360-735-4516 or laura.mcvicker@columbian.com.
