Nice Finish for July

Let’s get right to the forecast.  Refill and read on.

Pleasant weekend ahead, with temps in the low to mid 80s, slightly cooler around the sound.  Cooler pattern, with chance for drizzle or scattered showers starting early next week, but that cloudy/damp period will be limited to north of Chehalis.  Western OR will cool down a few degrees, with some morning marine clouds, while remaining dry.  Heat keeps going east side on into ID.

Warm Wed through Fri next week, as the ridge of high pressure begins to slowly rebuild over the PNW.  We’ll begin to get ‘toasty' starting Sunday July 30.  The ‘heat dome’ making news across the desert SW will expand west, then north, as August gets underway.  This cycle will likely present the hottest days, thus far, for 2023.  Triple digit readings are probable, at times, for large portions of the west, including Willamette Valley, SW WA and east side.  That said, the key takeaway is for a possible string of 90+ degree days that will make the dog days of summer uncomfortable, even with a northerly breeze.  Patrons in southern BC will warm up, too, but not to excessive levels (per current model runs).  Got a swimming site?

Concurrent with the heat-up will be increasing monsoonal storms across the desert SW, moving northward over mountains feeding the Colorado River, which will bring on rapid melt of the heavy snow pack, continuing positive ‘refilling’ of Lake Powell & Lake Mead.

☕️☕️☕️ Third Cup:  Dr Cliff Mass, Atmospheric Science Professor at Univ of Washington, posted a fine piece in his blog on July 20th titled “Is Global Warming Causing Massive Heatwaves?”  Worth the read at cliffmass.blogspot.com 

Bottom line: August will start out quite toasty, so enjoy the relatively pleasant summer temps as we journey through the last 11 days of July.