Inland Northwest Hay Weather

We've had quite a stretch of mild weather to end out the month of August.  Deer Park has had 6 days in August below 80F.  Surprisingly, the average is actually 7 such days. But all of that is about to change.  High pressure is building into the area from the west.  However, there is a small low pressure area west of California that will move into Oregon The low will pass by to our south, but it will cause showers to develop over our area on Monday night and Tuesday, mainly over the mountains.  Rainfall amounts should be on the light side. This will also cool our temperatures from the 90s over the Labor Day weekend, back into the 80s on Tuesday.  But high pressure will once again build over our area, warming our temperatures back into the upper 80s and lower 90s for the rest of next week.  At this point, it does appear that this pattern will slowly break down around September 10th, as temperatures cool down with a chance of showers. It's worth noting th...

After our cool weather of late, summer feels like it’s over. But don’t despair.  If you're a fan of the hot weather, it will return for the holiday weekend and beyond.  First, we’ll have one more storm system to contend with. As I said in the last blog, this next weather system isn’t at all like what we saw on Friday. Instead, this storm will move by along the Washington-BC border.  This pattern typically brings more wind than rain for our area. And any rain we do get would be Tuesday morning and on the light side.  Winds will likely gust in excess of 30 mph on Tuesday.  There’s a feature worth noting on this upcoming system. Take a look at the temperature (red) and dew point (black) forecast for Deer Park.  Notice how quickly the dew point drops on Tuesday. That’s some very dry air that will arrive behind the storm system. Not unusual for this time of year with early fall fronts. Besides the obvious implications on fire weather, this also could impact your...

We all know that the unofficial end of summer is Labor Day, and that's less than 2 weeks away.  With the recent cooler weather, it's natural to wonder if this is the end of the hot summer weather (BTW, we will reach around 90F on Thursday). First, we'll talk about the upcoming weekend, which will not feel like summer at all.  Our current weather pattern has cool air in the Northwest and the Northeast, with warmer weather in the middle of the country. But notice the cool area to the northwest of us, up by Juneau.  That is set to come crashing into our area by Friday and hang out in the West for the weekend.  Here's the forecast weather map for Friday night.  Not very summer-like. Saturday will likely remain in the 70s (possibly upper 60s) with a chance of showers from Friday afternoon through Sunday.   Amounts will vary widely with this kind of showery pattern.  Here's the National Blend Model's forecast for the three day period.  Some folks w...

Taking a quick look at the weather forecasts, it's kinda surprising how consistent the weather is from one day to the next. First, here's the temperature and dew point forecast.  Yes, the temperatures (red line) cool a little bit for the latter half of the week (upper 80s instead of lower 90s), but then the lower 90s come right back by Sunday and continue next week.  The subtle change is the dew point (black line).  With our monsoonal moisture (see previous blog), our dew points have been in the uncomfortable range for Inland NW standards.  But we'll see those drop a bit, to around 50F instead of the lower 60s we had on Sunday.  This will reduce the threat of heavy dew for those who are working on 2nd cutting alfalfa.  But dew points around 50F are still on the humid side for August.  We won't see any low temperatures in the 40s with this pattern. Then, look at the rain chances for the next 10 days.  I chose Newport instead of Deer Park for this g...