Heat wave in Pacific Northwest

[Tim Vasquez]

I don't know how many of you are following the weather but a huge chunk of the Pacific Northwest is enduring quite a heat wave.

Seattle WA.... 103F (all-time high, formerly 100F in 1994/1941)
Vancouver BC (not WA)... 93F (all-time high, formerly 92F in 1960)
Portland OR.... 106F (not an all-time high, would have had to break 107F)

Even Inuvik on the Arctic coast managed to get to 86.

Below is a map with temperatures at 00Z.

Tim

 

[Kat Sprague]

Yesterday was just miserable in the center of the state. At least the humidity wasn't very high. (for my area)

 

[David Wolfson]

It looks like the this abnormally warm continental air will have access to the Arctic Ocean for at least the next several days. Arctic ice cover is trending toward a record low, http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/N_timeseries.png. If the warm circulation continues a new record seems likely and is yet another confirmation of the likelihood of GW.

 

[Keith Mullen]

uhhh

Man if this hasn't just been a miserable set of days up here.

I'm up in Olympia, the Capitol (just an hour S of Seattle) and it's been HOT. 103-105 with moderate humidity.

Wouldn't be so bad if it cooled down before 4 in the morning, but it has just been hot and stays hot!

You know it's bad when folks from the deep south are up here and complaining that it feels way hotter than "Down Home". Yikes! THAT is a statement.

At least tomorrow it's only supposed to get right about 100 & start cooling off from there.

 

[Brad Nelson]

It's been a big ridge of heat out West with offshore flow...equals a huge heating event for the Pacific Northwest. Hopefully that cut-off low off approaching northern CA this week can actually bring some relief! Models earlier today wanted to retrograde this feature and keep the ridge across the interior with continued heat. This sure has been the summer of ridging in the West and troughing out East that's for sure! Except for California where the heat has been non-existant for them. Lots of onshore flow in this area and a really temperate summer. Definitely different from what you'd expect.

 

[Jason Harris]

Actually yesterday was 105 in Seattle:

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowest/getobext.php?wfo=sew&sid=KBFI&num=72

at least that was what the 6 hour max indicates for Boeing Field.
30 Jul 12:53 am 79 61 54 CALM 9.00 CLR 1007.9 29.76 29.752 105 72 OK
29 Jul 11:53 pm 81 60 49 NW 6 10.00 CLR 1007.6 29.76 29.752 OK
29 Jul 10:53 pm 85 60 43 NW 3 8.00 CLR 1007.3 29.75 29.742 105 85

Sacramento was 100 earlier this week, today we're supposed to be 83 while Seattle gets to be around 100 again. Very interesting.

 

[Jason Caster]

We've had 4 straight days of 100+ degree days with the hottest yesterday at 108 here in Medford. We usually see one or two days in the summer just breaking 100, but 108 is unheard of, and it broke a record yesterday.

Our mountain ranges have pushed up some high based isolated thunderstorms, so we get a small relief from the cloud cover in the evening. But our whole area is under a fire watch due to the extreme heat, dry conditions, and thunderstorm activity.

Relief is in sight for the weekend as temperatures will drop below the 100 mark beginning tomorrow. More chances for isolated thunderstorms are evident through the weekend, so I'm hoping to get out and enjoy the show. Of course, our thunderstorms are dismal when compared to the midwest, almost always extremely high based.