Weather Eye: First day of June brings no weather surprises

Welcome to the first day of the meteorological summer. There will be no surprises today, with lingering low clouds to some extent and highs near normal in the low 70s. It will begin to warm as the weekend approaches, but we may not reach the 90s early next week, as forecast models keep us a bit cooler. It will inch its way into the 80s, however.

That’s probably not hot in your book, but when it surpasses 80 degrees, it’s too warm for this old weatherman.

I’ll throw out a guess for Monday through Wednesday and say 85 to 90 degrees, keeping to the upper limit in case forecast charts are wrong. They have been swinging back and forth lately, so make your own guesses.

The last day of May left similar to how it arrived: on the cool side of things. The morning low clouds lingered into late afternoon, keeping us well below normal, mainly in the 60s as of 4 p.m. I had a feeling Tuesday evening watching the sun go down over Vancouver Lake that it was going to be chilly Wednesday morning. It almost felt like fall, on the crisp side, as darkness shrouded the area.

Reports from the Yacolt area showed lows at or below freezing with scattered frost Wednesday morning. It was 38 degrees, according to observer Murphy Dennis on Rawson Road, and freezing in Dole Valley. That’s not unusual: Those locations can have frost well into June.

It was cool here in Vancouver at 45 degrees — not a record, but still cool enough to feel it going out the door Wednesday. The record low for May 31 was 38 degrees in 1978.

Despite a few cool days last month, we managed to level out at 4.5 degrees above average. Our rainfall measured .94 of an inch.

Here are a couple bits of old weather lore for you to ponder. “If June is sunny, the harvest will come early.” But then there is this: “If on the 8th of June it rains, it foretells a wet harvest.”

I haven’t tracked that one. Let’s see how that day turns out. Right now, the chances of rain then are quite low.