Weather Eye: Refreshing spritz of unexpected moisture felt like the beach

Did you feel it? Wasn’t it refreshing? Like walking along the beach with moist air penetrating your nostrils. What am I talking about? Oh so many questions.

The drizzle and mist early Saturday in much of the county felt like beach weather. It hadn’t been in the forecast, but oh, well. Not hot weather either. A strong onshore flow of air off the Pacific is keeping our weather comfortable.

I received a few reports of wet streets and enough moisture to make the dust on vehicles noticeable. I saw no drizzle at my house in Salmon Creek, but it was cool with the brisk northwest wind and cloud cover. I wore my sweatshirt Saturday morning. You know me, no complaints here!

The forecast calls for more of the same, morning clouds and close to seasonable highs — maybe a few less or more depending when the clouds clear. The average high for late July is 82 degrees or so. No 90-degree days on the horizon.

Three weeks into the month and there’s still no measurable rain in Vancouver, about a half-inch below average. The average mean temperature has been 68.8 degrees, 1.1 degree above normal. The hottest was 91 degrees July 1; the coolest 49 on July 12. I would call it a typical July here in the great Northwest.

Someone asked me if we would see 100 degrees this summer. Boy, nothing stands out right now in July but we have all of August to go through. Last summer, we only had two triple-digit days, a 100 and a 103 in August. That kind of weather can stay in the desert southwest or east of the mountains.

Patrick Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at http://weathersystems.com.