Weather Eye: Cooler weather may be on way; cricket chirps tell temperature

Is there relief in sight from the hot and dry weather? Fortunately, more marine air filtered inland than expected and kept us from pushing into 90s for the past two days. It is forecast to be 90 or better today through Thursday.

Then there is a chance we switch to a large trough of low pressure from Alaska ushering in highs possibly below average and a chance of showers. This may begin this weekend. Perhaps we will be enjoying cooler weather for a while.

If you are heading east, the weather will be hot as usual, and the Cascades will be quite pleasant for hiking and camping but with an increased chance of thunderstorms, especially southward in Oregon.

Did you see the beautiful full sturgeon moon Sunday night? With the smoke and haze in the air, it was colorful. Also, the clear nighttime skies this week will make for good viewing for the annual Perseid Meteor Shower. Best viewing is after midnight.

I finally heard some crickets the other night which tells me summer is on the downward trend. Don’t get me wrong, we still have lots of sunny days ahead but we are losing minutes of daylight each day.

With some warm nights in our offing, I’ll pass on the formula for telling just how warm it is outside by counting the chirps of these unique insects. This will be a close indication of temperature but not precise. The equation I prefer is to count the number of chirps in a 14 second period and then add 40. This will equal the air temperature within one degree 75 percent of the time.

The official dog days of summer end Friday.

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

Support local journalism

Related Stories