Afternoon temperatures fell to the 60s and 70s on much of the North Olympic Peninsula on Tuesday after a historic heat wave torched the region Sunday and Monday.
Brinnon and Quilcene each topped out at 111 degrees Monday, and the West End smashed an all-time record with a 110-degree reading at the National Weather Service station at Quillayute Airport. Port Townsend and Sequim both reached 100 degrees Monday afternoon, while Port Angeles set a new record of 99 at William R. Fairchild International Airport, according to Weather Service observations.
“I’m looking forward to the cloudy weather and a rainy day again,” said Keppie Keplinger, Jefferson County emergency management spokeswoman.
Cooler marine air moved onshore late Monday, bringing high temperatures down about 30 degrees Tuesday. The National Weather Service said more marine air was expected to push onshore today, bringing morning clouds and seasonal temperatures to the region.
“That should help bring the temperatures down probably into the 70 to 77 range across the northern Peninsula there,” said Matthew Cullen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle.
“We might get back to 77 or 78 over the holiday weekend, but in general, mid- to upper-70s during the day and low temperatures down into the 50s at night.”
Community centers were used as cooling stations during the heat wave in Port Angeles, Sequim and other communities.
“We had a center open here, the Tri-Area Community Center in Chimacum, and the Brinnon and Quilcene community centers were being utilized as cooling shelters,” Keplinger said.
“It wasn’t an inordinate number of people, but there were several at each location that we opened, and they were grateful for the place to go.”
Fire crews extinguished a brush fire near Brinnon on Monday. Another fire burned a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration atmospheric monitoring trailer in Forks.
“We were quite busy; by that I mean the fire districts were going out on calls,” Keplinger said.
“Smoke alarms and fire alarms kept going off because of the heat,” she added.
Clallam County Undersheriff and Emergency Management Director Ron Cameron warned of rising fire danger in a Monday post on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. He could not be reached for further comment Tuesday.
“There is no rain in the foreseeable future,” Cameron said.
“This is making things tinderbox dry, and our fire danger is quickly rising.”
No damage was reported Tuesday on city or county roads in the aftermath of the heat wave. The surface of Interstate 5 in Seattle was reportedly buckling from excessive heat.
“Generally, buckling is much less of an issue on the asphalt road surfaces that both we and the state use on local roads,” Clallam County Engineer Ross Tyler said Tuesday.
“The warmer asphalt becomes, the more flexible it becomes, which allows stresses due to expansion to be fairly evenly distributed throughout the pavement. Concrete pavement doesn’t share these flexible characteristics, which can sometimes lead to buckling during very hot weather.”
The previous record high for the Quillayute Airport was 99 degrees set on Aug. 9, 1981.
The temperate there fell 29 degrees in just 53 minutes after 3 p.m. Monday as the winds shifted from the northeast to the south with the arrival of cooler marine air, Cullen said.
“There was likely some additional enhancement from what we call downsloping, where the winds were coming down the terrain, and that actually is a warming process,” Cullen said.
“When the winds switched, they lost that additional warming.
“That’s a common feature at the end of a major heat event,” he added.
“You see that surge of southerly wind and the cooler marine air coming in. Temperatures will drop very dramatically, very quickly.”
The National Weather Service said the extreme temperatures were the result of a strong ridge of high pressure combined with a trough of low pressure, causing downslope winds.
Port Angeles’ previous record high was 94 degrees set on Aug. 18, 2016, and July 28, 2009.
Port Townsend’s old record was 96 degrees set on Aug. 8 and Aug. 9, 1960.
Other National Weather Service stations on the North Olympic Peninsula do not have historical records, Cullen said.
“We have our official climate stations that we have more robust records for,” he said.
“It’s a little bit more challenging for some of those other sites.”
Other Pacific Northwest temperature records were set Monday in Bellingham (99), Seattle (108) and Olympia (110). Extremely high temperatures were expected today in Eastern Washington.
Here are the peak temperatures observed during the heat wave, all Monday, at automated sites on the North Olympic Peninsula:
• Brinnon — 111.
• Quilcene — 111.
• Quillayute Airport — 110.
• Forks — 108.
• Port Townsend — 100.
• Sequim — 100.
• Port Angeles — 99.
• Nordland — 98.
• Cheeka Peak near Neah Bay — 98.
• Port Hadlock — 93.
• Hurricane Ridge — 90.
• La Push — 89.
• Sekiu — 82.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
