Weather Eye: A jacket might be a good idea if you go see the fireworks

Happy Fourth of July! While it won’t be a sizzling holiday, we should muster 80 degrees after some brief morning clouds. Expect northwest breezes and temperatures in the 60s for fireworks this evening.

Boy, those “morning” clouds Wednesday lingered well into the afternoon as they sometimes do, so afternoon highs were around the 70-degree mark, well below the average high of 77 degrees.

We will be stuck in more of a June weather pattern than July with varying amounts of morning clouds, some lasting after lunchtime and highs generally under 80 degrees in the pleasant 70s. At least today will be better than last year on the Fourth when Vancouver had a cloudy day, a trace of rain and a high of 68 degrees.

Pretty exciting weather developed just as I was completing my column Monday afternoon for Tuesday’s paper. A good band of thunderstorms developed to our southwest and moved through the metro area during rush-hour traffic.

A brief, small tornado touched down in Northeast Portland and did some damage but no injuries to persons or pets that I know of. A reader sent me a picture of a nice funnel cloud over the Minnehaha area, and there were a few others seen here in Clark County as the storms moved off to our east.

Vancouver officially recorded 0.59 inch of rain in a short time Wednesday evening. That remains the total so far this month. That is also nearly the average for the entire month of 0.69 inch. So, statistically speaking, we require little more to be close to average. Of course, the forests and trees could use much more.

I don’t see any rainfall or thunderstorms on the horizon, just a great deal of marine influence. While our clouds began to slowly break up around 3 or 4 p.m. Wednesday, the Washington Coast was basking in blue skies and sunshine. Go figure.

A sneak peek into later next week, we could be far away from the cool marine air. Enjoy your holiday!

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