What else can I say about the weather other than just one word? Fantastic! It doesn’t get any better than this.
The low clouds cleared from the coastline and it was clear and sunny there, with afternoon temperatures in the 60s. The rest of the week will be more of the same but edging cooler toward the end of the week and into the weekend. No rain in sight but variable clouds streaming up from the south.
We’ve had a nice turnaround in the afternoon highs from the first of the month. Here are the highs through 5 p.m. Monday: Aug. 1, 66 degrees; Aug. 2, 72 degrees; Aug. 3, 81 degrees; Aug. 4, 89 degrees; and Aug. 5, 89 degrees.
Hopefully, any smoke from the big fire in southwest Oregon will remain south of Clark County.
Speaking of smoke, the big fire near Wenatchee and Goldendale is getting contained but more than a dozen new fires caused by lightning erupted over the weekend. Despite scattered heavy rains east of the mountains last week, things are still very dry.
I mentioned the other day that I heard my first cricket of the summer season, and on Monday, I had a grasshopper jump over my shoe. I don’t know how prolific they are this year; there haven’t been too many the past couple of years. I guess they, like their cousin the cricket, rub their legs together to emit a sound.
I am sure both little critters are enjoying the warm and dry weather along with the rest of us. Every season has its accompanying sounds of nature — frogs in the spring, crickets and grasshoppers in the summer, geese in the autumn migrating south.
Patrick Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at Weather Systems.
