I hope you are safely enjoying this summer weather across the Pacific Northwest!  After a very gloomy first half of June, we finally turned a corner this week.

Yesterday Tuesday was the hottest day of the year at PDX, at 93 degrees. That’s not a record but it is 18 degrees above normal .  Thankfully I wasn’t around to endure it. I left the metro area around 1pm, just as the worst heat was about to kick in.  My afternoon and early evening was spent along the Oregon coast near Cannon Beach and Manzanita.  I avoided the Haystack Rock area for obvious COVID reasons.  But Arcadia Beach, a few miles south, was beautiful. People were spreading themselves out very well, with 30-40 feet between most individuals/families.

But most of the mile-plus long beach was empty, allowing me the quietude I so desired. It’s easy to forget just how beautiful the beaches and bluffs are, when you don’t visit them often.

Air temperatures along the beachfront were probably in the upper 60s, about what you’d expect with the 55-degree water plus hot sunshine on the sand.  BUT….just a mile or even half-mile away from the water (including the width of the beach itself), it was distinctly warmer, probably 73-75 degrees.  Maybe even a couple degrees warmer in some sheltered spots a couple miles inland.  These kind of tight “microgradients” along the coastline are commonplace when the marine layer is suppressed and the inland valleys are hot.  It’s not the same as a scorching east wind, but you on days like this you can still feel the heat of the sun trying to creep through (instead of the iconic chilly fog).

Today was a cooler day as a moderate marine push came in late last night. We still hit 79 at PDX with afternoon sunshine though, which is slightly above normal.

What’s ahead?  Tomorrow and Friday the ridge rebuilds somewhat, with temps climbing from +10 to +15 at the 850mb level. Not as hot as Tuesday, but it should be good for 85-88 degrees again in the metro area.

But look what the upper level maps are showing by Sunday afternoon!  This looks almost like a classic “retrogression” pattern that we sometimes see in the winter. Warm heights over the north Pacific and a chilly ‘arctic’ trough across the Western U.S.

We will see the airmass cool dramatically Saturday, bottoming out between +2 and +3 Sunday morning. For Portland that means high temps plunge again…likely to as cool as 67-70 degrees by Sunday with rain showers. It won’t be quite as raw as some of the chilly days in early June, though.

This cold trough will also bring some extremely cool and unsettled conditions (by late June standards) to eastern Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.  Temperatures in The Dalles and Pendleton, for example, will be at least 10-13 degrees below normal Sunday, with even bigger cold departures to the south and east.  Also…the cool airmass could mean snow in the highest spots of the Wallowas and Northern Rockies, like above 7,000-8,000 feet.

By next Monday-Wednesday we dry out again and temps slowly begin to recover, as the cold trough drifts further east and gradually weakens. It looks like we end up very close to normal as we begin July, by that I mean some morning clouds, afternoon sun, and highs in the mid 70s to low 80s:

To sum up:  We have two more very warm summer days coming up in Portland, up in the mid to high 80s.  Then two cool and unsettled days over the weekend, as cool air drops in from the north. This will be especially dramatic over the Intermountain West Sunday and Monday, with temps up to 15-20 degrees below normal in spots.  Next week looks dry and gradually warming back toward early July norms.

Apart from the fact that the two coolest days are on the weekend,  I’m not going to complain about this summer regime. There’s a little bit of everything:  cool and damp, mild and dry, and sunny and warm. Just about everything except extreme heat (i.e. 95+).  I don’t think many of us are pumped for that.  The lack of dry east wind will also keep fire danger from accelerating too quickly these next couple weeks.

Enjoy our summer cornucopia of weather! -Karl