Fine summer weather continues in the great Northwest and will do so all week. It will get into the hot category Wednesday as we sizzle just over the 90-degree mark.
Friday and over the weekend we drop back down to near 80 degrees with possible morning clouds; still no big rainstorms heading our way. Thunderstorms will creep up the Cascades as the week wears on.
The wildfire on Government Island just goes to show you how dry things are even in the middle of the Columbia River. Fire danger will only rise more this week. And with prospects of lightning over and east of the mountains it will become dangerous.
I took a jaunt down to the Long Beach area over the weekend and I can say the ocean water was very nice. Not that toe-numbing ordeal one usually goes through. Clear sunny skies and temperatures in the low 70s at Cape Disappointment area. And yes, I took my own advice and flew my kite.
I don’t know if you want to hear this, but there are inklings of a La Niña forming that may influence our winter down the road. It’s mild at this point, but bears watching. At least we end up with nice snowpacks in the mountains and we often have a good chance of snow here at city levels in a La Niña winter.
Looking at the chart of 2013 Atlantic tropical storm names I see my sister’s name is on it. I hope that name doesn’t develop into a hurricane. We have already had five tropical depressions but no hurricane yet. The season runs through November. The remaining names include: Fernand, Gabrielle, Humberto, Ingrid, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, Melissa, Nestor, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastien, Tanya, Van and Wendy.
I wouldn’t mind being on the panel that selects these names. But if I were, I might lose a few friends!
Patrick Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at Weather Systems.
