Weather Eye: No rain on horizon as pleasant weather keeps it hold into fall

Are you enjoying our weather? You better be, because it just doesn’t get any nicer here in the Pacific Northwest.

With a rather quiet weather pattern, I would usually say there just isn’t much to write home about weatherwise, but I think a mention of the very placid weather conditions we have had late summer into early autumn meets the honorable-mention category.

More of the same continues into the weekend, and still no rain on the horizon. Some longer-range models try bringing a change in the pattern now being advertised later next week, but my confidence at this point is very low. I would guess little, if any, rain for the first full week of October! As we enter into October weather, it is best to take the forecast a day or two at a time due to possible sudden changes in the pattern.

With new fires in the eastern Gorge and a slight drift of east wind today, we may see more haze and smoke in our skies. It probably won’t be as bad as last week, and a shift in the winds to northwest Friday and Saturday will push any smoke away.

I certainly won’t be doing any rain dances or such, as I really like the change of seasons arriving on a dry note. There will be plenty of time for October skies with rain showers and blustery winds.

This does look like we will end up September as one of the driest in the past 20 years or so. It is the driest July through September time period at Portland International Airport, with only a quarter inch of rain. Maybe we should start a rain pool and guess when the fall rains will begin?

We are losing about three minutes of sunlight each day, and now the darkness of night has increased from eight hours in June to 12 hours currently. Yes, we know the seasons are changing, and change they will, but a subtle change is always welcome.

See you Sunday!

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