Temperatures warming after a cool start to July

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — It’s not often that we only top off in the mid-60s in July. That was the way we started the month and the day felt like spring. Vancouver, Portland and Salem all topped off in the mid-to-upper 60s. Dreary and damp locally with plenty of cold air up north that is leaving just about all of the Pacific Northwest under this spring spell.

High temperatures for our region were colder than most of the United States. Phoenix coming in at 105 and even Bismark hit the mid-80s. Onshore flow and an upper-level trough are keeping us colder than the rest of the states. We’re also maintaining a decent amount of cloud coverage which is inhibiting our afternoon temperatures. We will have some of this for your Thursday as we don’t completely clear out of the spell of this trough.

I just want to point out, after checking in with our temperature frequency table for July, that temperatures in the mid-60s do not happen often. We barely cracked 65 degrees Tuesday, which topping off around 65 degrees only happens about 3% of the time in July. It’s tough to have a daytime high this cold in the summer! It wasn’t a record max low, that was 60 degrees back in 1966. We’ve never had a high temperature below 60 in July.

Lastly, I want to show you the weather pattern for Thursday. The green and yellow area is the trough that is digging down the PNW. This is going to be the region that is cooler and will the greatest influence from the ocean. It will likely be cooler for you folks in southwest Washington, compared to the southern Willamette Valley. Expect temperatures to be around 70 degrees Thursday with some neighborhoods topping in the lower 70s. Temperatures increasing by the weekend!