Weather Eye: Summer gets off to comfortable start, but showers to return

It was a chilly start to the day Wednesday for summer’s arrival with lows in the low 40s in much of the urban area. Morning clouds burned off around midmorning and afternoon temperatures managed to get in the low 80s. Not too shabby.

As summer officially began shortly after 4 p.m. Wednesday, the thermometer was at a comfortable 80 degrees with very nice northwest breezes.

We will see another repeat today except we will have a much warmer start to the day. Clouds and showers are back for much of Friday through Monday, with I think Sunday being the best day out of the bunch. Rainfall amounts should be on the lighter side. Some thunderstorms will erupt mainly over the Cascades and east of the mountains as well.

The last week of June will continue somewhat cool and cloudy with no excessive heat in the forecast. And speaking of heat many cities in the desert Southwest and along the Eastern Seaboard are really toasting right now. Ah, gotta love the Pacific Northwest, right?

I do like the longer hours of summer, with nearly 16 hours of daylight now and then slowly decreasing as summer marches on. At this point in time July looks rather pleasant with maybe no rain and warm temperatures making for a delightful Fourth.

With the clear skies last weekend some lucky folks in our state got to see an amazing display of the aurora lights. The sun spot activity has increased quite a bit over the past year or two and a major solar storm occurred last weekend triggering the display.

Patrick Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at Weather Systems.