Hot, Dry Weather Continues Into the Heart Of July

While the extreme hot weather the Northwest saw last week has moved out of the area, temperatures remain very warm for this time of year. Marilyn Lohman, meteorologist with the National Weather Service said the extreme temperatures over the past ten days really did a number on soils across the Northwest.

“Soil temperatures are in the 70s to low 80s, but I think they’ll come down a little bit from where we had those really hot days.  And that heat kind of perpetuates itself, the dry conditions on the ground continues to dry things out, there’s no moisture in the plants, so it gets even hotter; kind of a vicious cycle.  Moisture levels are really so very low, they are in about the one to fifth lowest percentile of soil moisture across a wide swath of the northwest.”

Lohmann added those low soil moisture numbers continue west of the Cascades in both Oregon and Washington.

Will we see any relief anytime soon?

Lohmann says….Kind of.

Overnight temperatures in the coming days are expected to drop, providing relief across the region. But she added daytime highs are expected to climb above 100 degrees again this weekend. And when it comes to rain, she’s not expecting anything outside of an isolated thunderstorm over the next two weeks.

If you have a story idea for the PNW Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail gvaagen@cherrycreekmedia.com