Weather Eye: Great weather expected for holiday weekend

We run a risk of drizzle or light showers today and perhaps Wednesday and Thursday before high pressure attempts to build over us. Assuming it does, Thursday through Sunday look pleasant with highs ranging from 75 to 80 degrees with the warmest temperatures on the weekend. Great weather for the Fourth.

This weekend will be a good one to discontinue the string of cloudy, cool and damp weekends. After all we are steadily on our way into a summer mode, so about time the weather behaves as it should. Still, I don’t foresee any excessively hot weather in the 90s coming up until after this weekend at least.

With the partly sunny skies Monday afternoon we almost made it to the average high for the date of 75 degrees. Just one degree short as of 5 p.m. So, no complaints about Monday despite thicker overcast earlier in the day.

We only had a trace of rain in the rain gauge here in Vancouver on Sunday. That left the monthly tally at 3.40 inches, 1.65 inches above average. We shall see if we add to that before midnight tonight.

I’m glad the forecast for July Fourth is for sunny skies and 80 degrees. We haven’t seen a rainy Fourth of July in two decades. I believe we had some measurable rain in 1999. Most evenings do call for a light sweatshirt or sweater at fireworks time as those northwest winds can be cool at 10 p.m. And then there are the mosquitos giving reason for a cover-up.

Today we bid farewell to the last day of June and climate-wise welcome the real days of summer weather we often see in July. To sum things up, great weather everywhere for the holiday this weekend, even along the coast with sunny skies there. Some thunderstorms ending Wednesday over the Cascades. We will see if any adjustments are needed when we get together on Thursday.