Weather Eye: Weekend weather should be ideal for summer activities

Picture perfect weather continues and with highs in the 80- to 85-degree range through the weekend. You may have heard that hotter weather is on the horizon next week. Yes, I believe highs could approach 90 degrees, but I don’t see any excessive heat.

We may inch up into the upper 80s as we start the new week and enter the month of August. Some forecast models had hot weather developing over us, but as of Wednesday afternoon, they have backed off that aspect. Good news for most. But, as always, we keep the weather eye out for future changes. Seems like the extended predictions and weather are always changing.

That weak weather system that draped the clouds and sprinkled over us earlier this week did little to help us out with much-needed moisture. Officially, Vancouver only received a trace of rain. So the dry month continues and most likely we end up at midnight on July 31 with no measurable rain at all. Not unusual for July, which is our driest month.

The National Climate Center is forecasting August to be warmer than normal and equal chances of having normal precipitation. August sees little rainfall unless we get thunderstorms and none of those are in sight any time soon.

I have read winter predictions for our area, and experts are predicting that a developing El Nino pattern will keep us mild and dry this winter. The storm track would be well north and south of us. Less snow in our mountains, lower chance of snow here in the city levels and highs above seasonal averages and overnight lows keeping above freezing much of the time.

We have plenty of time to see what others are predicting and how well the warmer ocean waters are increasing. Of course, we have our woolly bears out and about in late summer and early fall making their bold predictions. I’ll share information as I come across it in future columns.

Meanwhile, get out and enjoy the remaining days of summer. Plenty of great weather on the way. Hoping the heat stays at bay.