Maybe wishes do come true, but just not for everyone. Clark County residents who hoped for summer to come early after the record-breaking rains this winter appear to have had their wishes granted. But the opposite is true for those concerned about the snowpack.
“It is unusually warm — big time,” said Gerald Macke, meteorological technician at the Portland office of the National Weather Service. “This is July weather.”
The Weather Service recorded a new high temperature record for Vancouver on Monday afternoon. It reached 89 degrees at Pearson Field.
That beats the previous record for the date, which was 85 degrees. That record was set April 18, 1934.
The warm weather makes parks and Popsicles popular, but is hard on the mountain snowpack that will have to provide water for fish, irrigation and hydroelectricity all summer and fall.
“The last couple weeks in April have been devastating in the Cascades,” Macke said. “The snow in the mountains is going away in a big hurry.”
Heavy precipitation this winter left Southwest Washington with an above-average snowpack. But in some areas below 4,000 feet, the snow has already melted.
The average high temperature for this time of year is about 25 degrees less than we experienced Monday. Macke said he expects more heat records to be set around Southwest Washington and Northwest Oregon in the next few days.
A high-pressure system is sitting all along the West Coast from Washington down to California, causing the air to sit still and heat up. The few light winds blowing through the Vancouver/Portland metro area are coming from east of the Cascades and carrying with them only a few clouds and very little moisture.
“Continental air heats up a lot quicker than over-water air,” Macke said.
On Wednesday, the winds will shift, the clouds will roll in off the Pacific Ocean and the temperature will drop. A few light rainstorms are expected and lightning is possible. The weekend’s high temperatures will struggle to reach 60 degrees.
For the rest of the spring and into summer, the Weather Service generally expects warmer-than-average temperatures, but in general it will not be as hot or dry as last year.
