Weather Eye: No heat waves or soaking rains in our near future

With a cool air mass over us, we struggled to reach 70 degrees Saturday. As of 5 p.m., Vancouver had a high of 69 degrees, which may have reached 70 after I wrote this column. Still, it is unusual for August to have such cool high temperatures.

Some of you even had a few sprinkles or light drizzle. Once again, Vancouver officially had only a trace, so our monthly total stands at .02 of an inch, which is below average in our driest month of the year. We should be enjoying highs in the low 80s but won’t get to that point until later in the week.

Forecast models for late this week and next weekend are a mixed bag. Some project 80- to 90-degree highs; others predict highs in the 70s, with perhaps more drizzle. There are no excessive heat waves or soaking rains in our near future.

We are running nearly 5 degrees above average, but that will be knocked downward if we continue to get the cooler afternoon temperatures.

Things are extremely dry, so fire danger remains high, but the cooler temperatures and higher humidity help temper that a bit.

I had my first report of the woolly bears the other day from a reader above Salmon Creek. I guess it is that time of the year once again. Boy, it seems like I was just writing about the lowly critters, but that was one year ago. We’ll see what they have in mind for our upcoming winter as the weeks hum along.

We are really losing daylight quickly now as the weather machine prepares to shift gears toward fall. Not to be a downer, but since the official start of summer on June 20, we have lost nearly two hours of daylight. With the fall equinox on Sept. 22, we will have lost another one and a half hours of daylight. On Thursday, the sun will set before 8 p.m.

Enjoy your week.