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Weather Eye: Summer slides nearer to a calm, clear close

The Columbian
Published: August 15, 2011, 5:00pm

The showers I expected Sunday and Monday failed to materialize, but hey, this summer has been full of surprises. Regardless, skies cleared early enough to get us around the 80-degree mark, just about average for this time of the year and still in the pleasant category.

Not much change that the weather eye can see for the rest of the week, with highs continuing around 80 or 85 degrees. There’s till no sign of rainfall, either.

Seattle has not had a high temperature above 84 degrees so far this year. If things continue in that direction, it would only be the third time in weather records of a summer without a high of 85 degrees or better.

For Seattle (since records were first kept at the airport in 1945) only 1954 and 1957 lacked a high of 85 degrees or better. Statistics show that the odds of a high above 85 degrees after Aug. 15 are only about 20 percent.

Here in Vancouver we have at least surpassed that milestone but still await the first 90-degree day. The updated outlook for western Washington is for above-normal precipitation the remainder of the month. I know we have two weeks to go, but I certainly do not see anything heading our way.

I just reviewed some rainfall amounts for July around the Evergreen State, and the highest amount was 5.05 inches at the Hoh Ranger Station in the heart of the Olympic rain forest. Sedro Woolley wasn’t too far behind, with 4.77 inches. Those would be good amounts during our fall and winter months.

I noticed the garden centers have fall chrysanthemums and pansies for sale, signs of things to come. It won’t be long before we are talking about fall storms hitting the coast and changing colors over the landscape. The new coastal radar on Langley Hill west of Hoquiam is in the testing stages and will be online this fall ready for those heavy wind and rain storms.

It will fill a large void in Doppler radar coverage between Portland and Seattle, and especially down the Chehalis Gap to the coast. Currently the Olympic Mountains block the Seattle radar.

Enjoy the very pleasant weather this week.

Patrick Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at http://weathersystems.com.

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