Weather Eye: Winds change at opportune time

Things are looking a bit better on the weather side of things as far as the heat and the dry weather goes. Westerly winds off the coast began their eastward movement late Wednesday into Clark County, helping to push the Eagle Creek Fire back into the Gorge.

The smoke will be slow to dissipate as the smoke shield from all the fires over Washington and Oregon had pushed well offshore so that smoke out over the ocean will need to move inland and past Clark County before we see perfectly clear skies.

There still may be some smoke at upper levels from fires in Oregon. We’ll cool down to 78 to 80 degrees today and Friday and mid-70s on Saturday with a risk of showers. No wetting rains are in the forecast.

Beginning Sunday, high pressure will build and we’ll go back into the 80s through mid-week. East winds are likely to reappear on Monday, which may cause some hot spots to flare up and more smoke heading our way. If east winds get going enough, we could possibly see 90 degrees again.

I am sure many of the fires in the mountains in all of the western states will not be out until the snow flies. Besides the fires in Washington and Oregon, wildfires in Montana are destroying hundreds of thousands of acres.

Meanwhile, the national weather eye is on Hurricane Irma heading toward Florida. It’s a massive storm at this time, and subject to several paths that will take it to the US.

Wednesday was the first day with a high out of the 90s this month. The high in Vancouver as of 5 p.m. Wednesday was 83 degrees, the coolest since another 83 degrees on Aug. 31. So far, September is the warmest on record; of course, we have many more days to go. The main message on the horizon is dry, dry, dry. A risk of thunderstorms was possible today, but hopefully they would not ignite new fires. Some will have some rain with them.

We will chat on Sunday and see how the weather is shaping up for the upcoming week. Be safe.

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

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