Hello from Long Beach, Wash.! Yep, I’m spending a couple of days at the beach, and why not? The late-September weather just can’t get any better than this. I mean, blue skies, sunshine, a light breeze and temperatures in the 70s.
I was expecting some low clouds and drizzle here, but nope, it’s less cloudy here than it was in the interior when I left Vancouver. More of the same weather is in the offing — until further notice, really, at least through the first full week of October.
High pressure will hold, and we should see only shallow influences of marine air as an occasional weather system goes by to the far north to bring us some marine clouds. The bottom line really is, expect seasonable temperatures — or maybe even warmer than normal toward the week’s end.
There certainly won’t be much to report when we look back to September’s rainfall, that’s for sure. Vancouver’s still at 0.04 of an inch and my Salmon Creek gauge at 0.07 of an inch for the month.
Conditions here at the coast are similar to those in the valley, with fire danger signs at the yellow high mark. Grass is brown, dust is in the air, leaves on some trees are dead and brown. The one nice thing is that the air is so fresh with no smoke from the inland areas — nice and clean, as one can usually expect along the ocean beaches.
Friday night into Saturday morning was sure a warm night, with the official low of 61 degrees! Saturday’s highs were in the mid-70s with very low humidity. It doesn’t get any better than this, folks.
Shine on …
Did you see the moon last evening? It was the harvest moon — the full moon that falls closest to the autumnal equinox — and was in its peak glory at 8:19 p.m.
Mark your calendars: The Oregon Chapter of the American Meteorological Society will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Columbus Day Storm at OMSI, 1945 S.E. Water Ave., Portland, at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 13.
Patrick Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at http://weathersystems.com.
