Vancouver’s high on Saturday as of 5 p.m. was only 77 degrees. The last day below 80 degrees had been 79 degrees a week earlier, Aug. 22. A dry cold front moved through with cooler temperatures and gusty winds.
Winds increased in the Columbia River Gorge and over the Cascades, bad news for existing wildfires there. Wind speeds 25 to 35 mph with higher gusts would have fanned the flames. The good news: The flow off the ocean will continue today and Monday with higher humidity, lower wind speeds and marine low clouds west of the Cascades.
The bad news, I guess, for wildfires is that warm high pressure rebuilds from the southeast and increases highs over us in the 85- to 90-degree range and possibly creeping into the low 90s later in the week. East of the mountains it will be hot and extremely dry with highs of 95 to 100 degrees.
I present you my idea of the week’s temperatures above, but there are a few forecast models that want to push our highs into the middle to upper 90s. We’ll look at that prospect in Tuesday’s column. Regardless, the first 10 days of September, our official beginning of autumn, appear to be warm and dry.
