Weather Eye: Expect sunny skies, low 80s this week

We reached somewhat of a milestone Friday when our afternoon high temperature here in Vancouver was 80 degrees, which is right on average for the date. It was not only our first 80-degree day for the month but also the warmest day since June 26 when it reached 87 degrees.

Just goes to show you what kind of a summer we are having. Saturday as temperatures began to climb, a band of clouds moved through and dropped the temperature into the low 70s, keeping us from reaching the 80-degree mark with a 77-degree high.

Meanwhile, east of the Cascades in Washington, it was on the hot side with most highs in the 90s and strong westerly winds which caused a red flag warning to be issued for extreme fire weather conditions.

Here we are settling in the midpoint of the month and can only boast two days this year with highs in the 90s. Each summer we usually record about 14 days at 90 degrees or better. Of course, we have plenty of time for that.

This week we will have highs each day through Saturday right around 80 or 81 degrees which is the average expected high. Mostly sunny skies and no rain is expected at this point, just cool and pleasant north to northwest winds which will help to temper the atmosphere.

Last year in July, we also had a cool month at this point in time and also nearly an inch of rain in the gauge which is much less than the 0.08 of an inch we had this year so far as of Saturday. July 2018 had only 0.02 of an inch for the entire month and in July 2017 no measurable rain fell all month. So it could be worse like July 2019.

Also last year at this date, I mentioned in my column that the next five days would be around 80 degrees each day. That’s just what I wrote here two paragraphs earlier. Sometimes what goes around comes around in the weather business. I always say of course that “normal” is just a collection of extremes.

Enjoy your week everyone.