Excessive Heat Warning for Portland: Latest weather forecast, news headlines

Welcome to a special streaming edition of KGW News. We are starting off with a look outside at downtown Portland from our rose city sky cam looks a little gray out there but gosh, it's in the nineties here at five o'clock, 504 to be specific on your Thursday evening, all this hot weather prompting an excessive heat warning to weather impact alert days as well to finish off your week. Thank you for joining us. I'm Christine Poon, got chief meteorologist Matt Sino here too. Matt. The way you describe it over and over, it is hotter than biscuits out there. Nobody's ever said that better. You win, you win the hotter than biscuits award for 2020. I don't know if I want that award. You really don't trust me. Let's take another look outside from our sky camera on the Wells Fargo building looking the south and east and man, that air looks dirty, doesn't it? That is all haze from wildfire, smoke, wildfires burning in central Oregon, drifting our way on the heels of a south south, south, south easterly wind a lot. Now, we are down to 96 right now and yes, the humidity is low and the air quality, in spite of what it looks like is not terrible because most of the smoke is elevated and above us. But it was a hot one. Portland hit 102 today. That's a record for the date and it ties the record for hitting 100 degrees. The latest occurrence, uh, that we've ever done that in Portland tying 1944 when we hit 101. That is the LA. This is the latest day in the year Portland's ever hit 100. I think we break that record tomorrow as we top out around 100 which is what they did in Hillsborough, Vancouver was 99 Kelso 97 Hood River, a relatively cooler 90 but Pendleton hit 100. Medford and Roseburg were 105 and Salem also hitting 100 and look at the coast Astoria, nearly 9089 there 86 at Tillamook. So really cooking on the north coast. So Christine mentioned it. The weather impact alert continues through tomorrow for the hot weather. This is a major heat risk for those that suffer from heat related illnesses. So reduce activity if that's you and everybody should try to stay hydrated with this hot dry weather, including your pets and your plants. So keep an eye on all of it. Meanwhile, out of the coast kind of an eerie scene. It's been hazy out here. The marine layer thinned out but look, it's 89 degrees at Cannon Beach. Wow. Amazingly hot at the Oran coast and amazingly widespread are the heat advisories and warnings everywhere in the salmon colors under heat advisory. The Willamette Valley and the Cascade foothills are under an excessive heat warning until 10 o'clock tomorrow night. Coincident with that is a fire weather warning and not just the Gorge or the Cascades, but for the Willamette Valley because of the hot dry conditions and it has been windy in the gorge. East winds at the west end of the gorge, they've been gusting to about 35 miles an hour. Corbett Crown point rooster rock. So that's where the wind has been during the day today. Look at our tech forecast for tomorrow. It's a little bit lower than what it was for today, which makes sense. But still, we're up around 95 by about 34 in the afternoon. I think it may happen sooner than that. The modeling wanting us to top out at 97. I think we're going to make 100 tomorrow for the latest occurrence of 100 degrees that Portland has ever had. We tied it today. I think we break it tomorrow if we hit 100 degrees. Now, one thing that could keep us from hitting 100 is all this wildfire smoke. See the fires running here here in here, all of that riding north on south and south easterly winds, as I mentioned and the smoke gets thick enough, it literally blocks the sun enough to keep the temperatures down a little bit. But it didn't happen today. We hit 102 and I don't think it'll be any more smoky tomorrow compared to today. Here's the change, the beginning of it. The first sign of it notice the low clouds starting to develop on the southern Oregon coast that will develop northward overnight tonight and tomorrow and the coast will cool off first as it typically does with a hot weather pattern for us. And then we will follow on Saturday, but we'll still be in the nineties. That'll be our fourth day of 90 or better in a row. We usually only see 290 degree days on average in September, we're going to at least double that first part of the month. So this is the smoke model and what's curious here and what's interesting anyway, is this, you can actually see the circulation center from low pressure off the Oregon coast in the smoke model. You see that kind of wrapping around with the smoke developing north. So we will remain smoky tomorrow, but that area of low pressure off the southern Oregon coast may spark some thunderstorms. I'll show you that in a little bit better detail in just a second. So our September heat wave. So first of all, today, we tie, as I mentioned, September 5th of 1944 for the latest occurrence in the year to hit 100 degrees. Today's record was 101. We've hit 102, as I mentioned. So we broke that and again, we're going to continue to break records tomorrow as we get up to about 100 degrees. I think tomorrow hazy and warm tonight. And again, the weather impact alert day continues tonight and tomorrow east winds will die down in the gorge overnight tonight and tomorrow. So it won't be as windy but still around 100 degrees on Friday. Those are the headlines for you as we go through this hot weather pattern. Now, here's the big picture, big area, high pressure right over us. It's slowly beginning to edge east and as the axis of it moves east of the cascades, we start to pick up more of a southwest flow. We see the winds on shore or come on shore from the coast and into the valleys. What I'm watching though, that's curious is barely visible here in the infrared imagery, which is what this is. So, let's switch to the water vapor imagery in here. You can clearly see that circulation center right there as that moves on shore tomorrow. I think it's going to spark some thunderstorms somewhere in Oregon. Now, it depends on exactly where it lands and how it moves as to whether or not we get any in the western valleys, but it's not out of the question. Certainly not out of the question for the Cascades or eastern Oregon. So we'll wait and see how close that gets to us. If it moves far enough north to end times out with the heating of the day to give us some thunderstorms tomorrow or tomorrow night. But we'll be watching the radar closely on that. Notice the east winds and notice the scattered high clouds coming our way too. Couple speckles over the cascades. The metals picking up on that potential for a shower or a storm then. Oh yeah, that's rain. As we go to Tuesday and Wednesday, we actually get some showers moving on and it's going to be a much different deal next week. So first shot is that thunderstorm potential Friday night and Saturday, then that moves out and suddenly a much cooler pattern with showers develops and we'll get a couple of chances of it. I don't see any widespread heavy rainfall, but there'll be several opportunities to get rain from Tuesday through next week. And if we run the accumulation forecast of rainfall out through next week, it actually becomes somewhat impressive over an inch in Eugene about an inch in Salem quarter of an inch in Portland. So let's see these, these forecasts that far in advance, uh leave a lot to be desired. But it paints the picture that, yeah, we're going to get some accumulating rainfall middle and end of next week. Right now. It's 96 the freezing level at 14,700 ft. All right. Then on the coast, mostly sunny, it'll be cooler on the coast tomorrow. Ah, highs in the sixties and seventies, lows in the fifties. But the valleys still cooking mid to upper nineties. I think a few places may hit 100 and the excessive heat warning does not expire until 10 o'clock Friday night. Up in the Cascades still hazy. Still very warm. 80 at Timberline, 85 at Government Camp Central and eastern Oregon. Hazy. Hot areas of smoke 101 and Pendleton for you. As we go to the guards, there are the east winds backing way down but still 103, the Dow and 100 in Cascade Locks tomorrow for Portland excessive heat warning through tomorrow night, hot and Hazy again tomorrow, we're going to go for 100 degrees in Portland, Christine then no more red days, just blue 92 on Saturday. But Saturday, it will still be hazy. Sunday. The haze should begin to clear. And by Monday we're seeing temperatures topping out in the low eighties and after that seventies with showers coming on shore, which has never sounded so good. Has it? It really sounds amazing at this point. I hope I don't have to hear you say hotter than biscuits again this year. Me too. Thanks Matt. Ok. So speaking of all this hot weather, we have Multnomah, county officials have now declared a state of emergency in response to the heat. There have been seven suspected heat related deaths in the county so far this summer and over the last three years, 85 people have died from heat. In addition to the county opening cooling centers, the joint office of Homeless Services is also expanding street outreach efforts. Our outreach workers are out in the community right now. They have been out since yesterday morning providing cooling supplies and water to folks experiencing homelessness. They are also handing out information about the cooling centers and how to access them. And here are some quick safety tips, stay hydrated and try to avoid activities during the hottest part of the day. Also check in on people who are living alone without air conditioning and also the elderly. The health department also wants people to limit driving and using gas powered lawn equipment due to air quality concerns. And if you or someone, you know, are looking for a place to escape the heat. Multnomah County will be opening two cooling centers again tomorrow. They're located at Cook Plaza in Gresham and at the Portland Covenant Church on Northeast MLK Junior Boulevard Multnomah County Library in downtown Portland and Gresham are also extending hours until eight o'clock, Clackamas, Washington and Clark counties have cooling spaces available as well. And remember triet riders headed to or from a cooling center don't have to pay. Also making headlines this evening. A man is dead after an hours long standoff in Lincoln City ended with police shooting and killing him. Oregon State police say it all started just after noon yesterday when Lincoln City police tried to give the man a parking ticket. They say he shot at them before driving away and later abandoned his converted bus at a motel on highway 101. A canine tracked the man then to a nearby home and he wouldn't come out. They say just before 3 a.m. he started shooting at officers and then climbed on top of the roof with a rifle. The OS P swat team shot and killed him when they say he refused to drop the gun. His name has not been released to Gresham now where thanks to smoke detectors, an elderly couple escaped their home this morning after the garage caught fire. A neighbor down the street shared this video on your screen. You can see the flames inside the home, you can't see it but the roof also caved in. This happened on Northeast 176th Avenue just after six o'clock. Fire. Officials say the couple was taken to the hospital. The cause is under investigation and US Bank is pulling out of the downtown Portland skyscraper bearing its name saying it will not renew its lease at the US Bank Corp Tower also known as Big Pink. It currently serves as the regional headquarters for US Bank. Hundreds of its employees work there. West Bank said some employees will transfer to other locations downtown. Many will be moving to a facility in Gresham as well. The company that owns the building, Seattle based Unico called the Move a quote severe blow to the downtown community and the city of Portland. Then coming up new tonight on a special edition of KGW news right after the game. This week, hard drugs were recriminated in Oregon. Now we're finding out how groups that help homeless people in old town want to step into Multnomah County's drug deflection program and help people on a path toward recovery. David Molko, we will see you right back here after the game and for KGW News at 11 again, I'm Christine pic. We really appreciate you being here. Remember, you can catch up any time on the latest headlines on kgw.com, your kgw app or our youtube channel. And before we head out, let's take a step outside one more time for a look over downtown Portland. This is from our Wells Fargo Sky cam. A little hazy out there for sure. Again, last report, 97 degrees looks like out there. Stay cool everyone and hope you have a great rest of your evening.