Weather Eye: There’s no relief from very hot weather until next week

Happy Fourth of July everyone! It is going to be a long, hot holiday weekend beginning today as the mercury rises into the uncomfortable and potentially dangerous zones. Be careful with fireworks, campfires, barbecues and keep hydrated.

The National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning that begins at noon today and runs through 11 p.m. Sunday. The Fourth will see highs in the 90-95 degree range and triple digits Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Although it will cool a bit Monday we will still reside in the 90s into midweek.

This forecast reminds me of a similar event in August of last year. It was 90 degrees to begin with on Aug. 12, 2023 and then we had successive highs in the days following 100, 108, 102, 102 and 91 degrees. This current hot spell will last at least six or seven days as well.

It was only a week or so ago when we were chatting about the record high in Vancouver of 115 degrees on June 28, 2021 and looking to the future wondering when we would see 100-degree weather. The warm high pressure was shown on forecast charts well in advance but with each model run it continued to excessively warm the temperatures. Now it is upon us.

If you have anything to do outside, do it early or late in the evening. I plan on watering the garden morning and night and staying indoors during the hottest part of the day.

If you do not have air conditioning it will be tough as overnight low temperatures will hover about 70 degrees and even in much of our cooler outlying locations of Clark County, it will be in the 60s.

As I write my column Wednesday afternoon, here are the expected high temperatures for Vancouver. July 4, 93 degrees; Friday, 100 degrees; Saturday, 105 degrees; Sunday, 103 degrees and Monday, 99 degrees. If high pressure is slow to move eastward late in the weekend, then we could chalk up four 100-degree days with Monday remaining at 100 degrees.

Regardless folks, you get the idea, there will be no relief until the middle of next week and even then, it will be much warmer than average.