In case you were out of town this weekend, here’s the way the smoky sunset looked at Rockaway Beach on Saturday September 4, 2011. That’s right–this is not some coastal layer of fog or low clouds, it’s smoke from the Dollar Lake fire on the northeastern slopes of Mt. Hood! Thanks to Don Best for emailing this shot to weather@koin.com.
We were having the Sussman family garage sale on Saturday when my eyes started to burn in the gusty winds coming from the NE. Winds that helped the Dollar Lake wildfire grow and carried the smoke and small particles of ash to the Portland-Vancouver metro area. It was 87 for a high in Portland, but many places along the coast topped 90 degrees thanks to the hot, dry east wind that is similar to the Santa Ana winds of southern California.
Here’s the smoke layer over Oregon’s famous haystack rock at Cannon Beach. 90 degree heat and smoke from wildfires at the Oregon coast? That’s just bizarre, don’t you think?
Here’s the hi-resolution Satellite Image that KOIN Local 6 Weathercaster Sally Showman shared on the news Saturday night. Expand this photo by clicking on it and you’ll see that’s quite a plume of smoke from Oregon’s Dollar Lake Fire that spread into Portland, Camas, Vancouver–and after this image was taken–all the way to the coast.
You can clearly see the smoke ( it looks like a haze) in this shot from Camas, WA at Hayes Freedom High School where we (KOIN Local 6) has one of our PinPoint Weather Net stations and HD Cameras.
More Smoke Possible This Week In The Willamette Valley
This will depend on what the fires are doing, of course. But extreme fire conditions are expected this week for anything burning on Wednesday & Thursday. And during that stretch of time, winds will switch around again so they’re blowing from the northeast into the Portland-Vancouver metro area. That could mean a repeat of what we saw this weekend.
It will also mean high temperatures in the mid-90s for much of the week. We wondered if summer heat would ever start. Well, it has. And here’s the proof:
- Portland’s average high for Labor Day Weekend 2011: 88 degrees
- Portland’s average high for Labor Day Weekend 2010: 71 degrees
- Portland’s typical high temperatures for Labor Day Weekend: 78 degrees
Wow, summer heat is here…just when summer vacation is over!
About hot school rooms. Maybe better to stay home, but I wonder: Early tomorrow morning, it’ll be chilly in the school. I hope the furnaces are not started in any school! They can wear coats in the AM, and it won’t get so hot in the PM!