Weather Eye: Pleasant weather for rest of July; keep water can ready

Summer is well on its way, and I believe pleasant weather is in store for us the rest of the month. We inch upward close to our average high of 80 the next few days, and then Monday and Tuesday we hover around 90 degrees. No worries. A short hot spell of sorts, and then the rest of next week, we have average highs around 80, plus or minus.

One thing I don’t see is any rain falling. So we remain dry into next week. It will be a bit humid the next few days. Our 16-day dry streak ended on Tuesday with .02 of an inch for Vancouver. Add in another .22 of an inch that fell on Wednesday, and we have a total of .24 of an inch for July.

The rain was welcome to the dry earth early Wednesday morning. Some of you, mainly in the eastern portions of the county, reported to me that you had heavy downpours. July is usually our driest month with less than an inch of rain expected. August too.

In 2011 we had a cool and wet spring like this year. Did you know that Timberline on Mount Hood still had about 100 inches of snow on the ground on this date in 2011? Not that much this go around, but the slopes above the lodge are well groomed, and I saw skiers on the web cams there yesterday.

Six years ago at this time in 2016, we were having showery weather and cool temperatures with snow falling a wee bit above Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood. It can happen when a large area of low pressure sets up shop along our coast and sends impulses of clouds and showers inland. The cold pool of air associated with it can bring snow down to the timberline regions of the Cascades. Repeat, repeat, it seems.

Even though we had about a quarter inch of rain recently, don’t expect that to hold your lawn and plants over for any length of time. We are well into the watering mode around your property. Those hanging flowers need a good soaking every day as we warm up.