Weather Eye: Hit the beach if you want relief from our 90-degree weather

The heat wave continues, folks, with only some hope next week for cooler temperatures. Meanwhile our current string of 90-degree weather runs through the Fourth of July weekend.

I ventured to the coast Tuesday and quickly donned my light sweatshirt as I hit the sand on the Long Beach Peninsula. Wednesday as I write this the ocean is bright and loud as can be with numerous white caps ushered on by the brisk northwest breezes here.

No need for the sweatshirt today as the sunshine is allowing the thermometer to play in the delightful 70s. Meanwhile at my weather station in Salmon Creek it was 95 degrees. Maybe I should camp out up here the rest of the predicted hot summer.

Driving around the countryside the end of June it is almost unbelievable that the fire danger signs are pointing in the “Extreme” category. It doesn’t get any worse than that, especially this time of the year. So it was not hard to fathom the fact that June was the driest, warmest in most every community, setting so many records I would need the entire weather page to list them.

We haven’t had any measurable rainfall in over four weeks and none on the horizon. In fact, as I sit here on the dunes with my laptop all you can see westward are blue skies; even the low marine stratus clouds have disappeared.

Those low clouds should venture back toward the mainland by Friday and Saturday enough to cool things off at the coast and maybe, just maybe, help Clark County get down to say, 90 degrees or so. Still hot by our standards.

Patrick Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.