Summer began on a cloudy note Monday at 4:28 a.m., but skies partially cleared … for a while. Then skies became mostly cloudy with finally a few sun breaks in the late afternoon. We’ll see more clouds and clearing periods and of course more showers are likely midweek, and by late in the weekend a very cold storm develops and drops southward out of the Gulf of Alaska.
Meanwhile today should see temperatures back in the 70s and again on Wednesday. As the next weather system moves inland Wednesday we could see a brief period of warm weather with highs near 80 and muggy conditions. Then the cool-down the remainder of the week. There is just no end in sight for a sustained period of warm and sunny weather. None.
Weather observer Dan Hein of Camas sent me an e-mail Sunday commenting on the relentless drizzle and light rain that dampened Father’s Day. He remarked, “Nearly continuous drizzle and rain here today, adding another 0.28 inch and a high of just 56. The June total is now 6.85 inches, just shy of the 6.90 inches my uncle Erwin recorded half-mile east of here in 1984. I thought maybe it would be a coolest high record, but I noted that on this day in 1991 a high of just 51 at my home in east Washougal with 2.02 inches of rain. Two days earlier it had been 78!”
Phil Delany of Dole Valley informed me he was recently doing some hiking trail maintenance in the Washington Cascades at the 4,000-foot elevation and there was still 2-3 feet of snow on the ground. If long-range forecast models are correct, I bet we see even more snow falling at that elevation early next week. Funny how a few months ago in the mid-to late winter time frame we were concerned for a lack of moisture in the mountains for this summer. Well, there has been ample rain and snow in the hills and if it stays cool and cloudy all summer we won’t need all of what has fallen.
Pat Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at http://weathersystems.com.
