Hello Internet friends.
I'm KING5 chief meteorologist
Mike Everett and we've got a heat
advisory on our way this weekend.
I'm sure you got the memo.
I'm gonna give you some details and
some of the science behind it that
will help you stay more informed and
importantly more safe as we go into
the warmest weekend of the year.
So far he advisory.
We'll be kicking in at noon on Saturday,
staying in place until at
least 11:00 PM on Sunday,
and that is for virtually
all of Western Washington.
The only exceptions being really
right along the northern edge of the
Olympic Peninsula and up towards.
Northern Sound as well all the
way out to the coast though
it's gonna be abnormally warm.
We'll talk about the temperatures
in a moment.
I wanna show you a scene from Thursday.
Lots of blue sky out there,
a few clouds but way more blue than
we've seen in a good long while.
Well, what's the difference?
What makes blue sky happen?
And more importantly,
what makes those temperatures warm?
Well,
it's all about low pressure
and high pressure.
Now we throw around the terms low
pressure and high pressure all the time,
but most folks really don't
have an understanding.
In fact, when I first got into the weather.
Business I thought that high pressure
meant that it was going to be stormy,
high pressure,
right?
No,
it's actually low pressure that's
associated with storms and high pressure
that's associated with tranquil weather.
Will why?
Well,
it's actually pretty easy stuff.
High pressure has a tendency and
you've heard me say this 1000 times
flow around a low as counterclockwise
flow around the high is clockwise.
Now if you're under the age of 30,
you might wanna stop real quick
and Google what a clock is and
then come back and rejoin us.
But basically what happens with high
pressure is it sits at the surface.
And disperses you see how the
arrows are kind of pushing
away there clears out the lower
atmosphere and makes the sky blue.
Now it's pulling air from way
up high where it was cool,
but as it drops it warms.
So when it hits the surface it's warming.
It's creating a situation where
it dries any condensation or
cloud cover out there.
Now of course exactly opposite
is true with low pressure.
Low pressure has a tendency to gather
and bunch that counterclockwise
flow will pull in all the air
around it and send it up well.
As it's going up, it's cooling,
and as it's cooling condensation
forms and that's what creates clouds.
So high pressure is usually
associated with tranquil weather.
Low pressure usually associated with storms.
So basically, in a nutshell,
in case you're a visual learner,
the air at the surface gets
pulled into the center.
That's called convergence with low pressure,
and that air rises and cools.
Now you may be thinking to yourself.
Wait a minute. It doesn't warm air rise.
Yes, you know room, but in the atmosphere,
remember as you go up into the atmosphere.
You know it's cold on top of a mountain.
There's less pressure up
there and so that air cools.
The condensation creates the clouds
because as cooling air rises,
it creates that condensation and pulls in
that moisture with it that's associated
with cool and inclement weather.
Well, exactly the opposite is true.
With high pressure, the air at the
surface not way up into the atmosphere,
but at the surface when it hits there
gets pushed away from the center,
obviously called divergences,
and as that air falls,
it warms the opposite of cool air.
And that evaporation,
the opposite of condensation kills clouds.
Any moisture that's at the surface there
gets eaten up by that warm dry air,
and that's why the sky is generally
blue around high pressure.
Now that's associated with warm
and fair weather.
Now you know the mechanics behind it.
Let's take a look at it in motion here.
So this is what's actually
happening this weekend.
Big Ridge of high pressure,
clockwise flow and a low pressure
system that's off the coast
are going to meet head on,
and we're going to be right in between.
So let me preface.
By saying this, it's not going to
get as hot as it did last year.
You remember the 28th is the
anniversary of Seattle hitting 107108.
That high pressure was actually
located right here,
and it was basically on top of us.
And that's why British Columbia,
Washington,
Oregon were as hot as they were.
This one's gonna come up and get close.
But as it approaches
that low pressure system,
this low pressure system's bigger,
it's stronger.
It's got more momentum behind it,
so this high will stick around for a
couple days and then gently get nudged.
Off towards the east there and
allow some cooler air and some
moisture to move in along with it,
but as long as this is in place this
weekend or I should be doing this as
long as this is in place this weekend
looks like it's gonna be warm and dry,
so putting future radar into motion here.
Take a look at this,
it's about what you don't see.
You don't see any cloud cover.
You don't even see any fog or
anything over top of Puget Sound.
Now you do see some moisture along the coast.
A couple things going on there.
Remember, sea surface temperatures
are about 50 degrees there and.
You've got some moisture that's
trying to push in off the Pacific,
but look at what happens when it arrives.
Here we pushed about 8:30 on Saturday
morning and again clear for the most part,
you see some moisture along the coast,
but as it tries to move towards it's
that high pressure is like denied.
See did it again there.
Basically,
as it moves towards the high,
the highest got enough dry
air that it eats that
and just keeps it offshore there until
that low finally moves through and
starts to push some moisture our way and
again it'll do that on Tuesday. In fact,
as you take a look at high temperatures.
For the next 5 days,
Friday gets in the mid 70s.
Nice 82 on Saturday,
Nice then it gets hot Sunday
and Monday 8689 again.
Nothing compared to what we experienced
last year but still the Pacific
Northwest that is hot and it'll be a
bit on the human side because we're
gonna be doing a lot of evaporating
and condensing while we're doing that.
But relief moves in on Tuesday as
that low pressure system finally
moves overhead and puts 10 to
temperatures back into the mid 70s.
Yet once again.
Another thing we've been saying
a bunch of times.
I know a lot of people roll their eyes
whenever we tell them this, because yeah,
everybody knows that the water is cold,
but it's the difference
between the air and the water.
That's gonna be a big deal
over the next couple of days.
So when it pushes into the mid to upper 80s,
folks are gonna want to swim Puget Sound.
Currently about the mid 50s.
Right now, Lake Washington in the low 60s.
Lake Sammamish is in the mid 60s
and rivers that is melted snow.
So yeah,
they're running around mid to low 40s there,
so just be very,
very careful where a life preserver
and keep an eye on each other.
Because hypothermia can set
in almost instantly,
so take a look at the big picture here.
This is high pressure.
You can see just absolutely nothing
going on over top of the Pacific
Northwest Oregon is in on some of that,
but you could also see that low
that's pushing in our direction.
And if you want to see a classic low
take the one that's in Alberta right now.
You can see that counterclockwise flow
and the associated frontal boundary
throwing some storms up into Manitoba
and Central Canada in the middle of summer.
Take a look at this.
We zoom in again a whole lot of nothing
going over top of the Pacific Northwest,
and it's been a while since
we've been able to say that.
So here's what to expect over
the next seven days here.
Another thing about clear air is it
cools very efficiently overnight.
So even though it's getting
warm in the daytime,
it's cooling quite a bit at night.
So we will be tucking into the 40s
and then as we go into the weekend,
it's a mid to upper 50s.
Overnight, 82 on Saturday,
becomes 86 on Sunday,
89 on Monday,
and then we're going to cool next
week and get ourselves closer to
where we should be this time of
year and maybe even get a few
raindrops Tuesday and Wednesday.
And now let's take a look at
how Western Washington prepared
for the heat wave this
weekend. That's perfect,
it's so beautiful. Yeah,
I'm so happy the sun is shining today. Yeah,
a parked ice cream truck is a
surefire sign that summer is here.
That is a big factor.
The weather as people ask us here
when are you going to be here?
We just said we're watching the sunshine
the couple behind cosmic ice cream
always wanted to run a food truck
and use the pandemic as a sign from
the universe to try something new.
OK, perfect something scary.
We really needed something to kind of.
Happened to push us. Yeah, a little further.
So on the longest day of the year,
the first day of summer,
they'll take all the customers.
Mother Nature can provide.
Thank you. Thank you summer.
Finally revealing itself after a
long wet winter and spring warmer
temperatures that may remind you of
last year when unprecedented triple
digit temperatures just about sent air
conditioners flying off the shelves.
Well last summer was ridiculous.
So in response,
Mclendon hardware has beefed up supply.
Did so weeks ago say they're ready for
the next rush as temperatures spike,
we're ready to go for sure.
Well, the heat wave may be around the corner.
Experts don't think we'll hit
triple digits again anytime soon.
Good news for a couple that plans to make
their living out of the back of a truck.
I'm looking forward to just
a normal summer where people
feel calm and relaxed and happy
and looking forward to life to be enjoyed
when he waves arrive.
They can hit some communities.
Harder than others. KING5's,
Natalie Swaby explains why extreme
heat could be more dangerous.
Depending on your zip code.
It is, it is so hot
this Portland native goes by
one name bird. Hi, how are you?
And she's on one mission.
Thank you so much to help her
community survive the next heat wave.
Wow, are they pretty light? Yeah,
because she says the death toll from
the last one is so devastating.
They said, well, the numbers 116
I said, you gotta be kidding me.
And so from there I was tuned
all the way in. Here they are.
She began taking matters into her own hands.
I just grabbed a card and I
fill out the names, addresses,
phone numbers of folks we were
able to help get fans and air
conditioners to about 200 people.
More than 100 deaths across
the Pacific Northwest.
It is Portland's all time record high ever
punishing heat in the Pacific Northwest
led to pavement buckling A streetcar.
Cable melting at hospitals.
There were thousands of emergency room
visits and there were hundreds of deaths.
A recent study examining heat
exposure in urban areas across the
country found that that kind of
extreme heat can be more dangerous,
depending on your ZIP code,
there are certain areas that
are hotter than others, that's
for sure. You seriously could start East
County and drive your way through Portland
Southwest and feel the difference
in temperatures. It's ridiculous.
That's because places with
less tree canopy more pavement.
And large buildings retain heat,
creating urban heat islands like
you find in Portland's Albina area
where birds family has roots. It's
a layered issue that did not
have to happen. Part of that
layered issue involves redlining.
It was banned in 1968, but for decades,
redlining was a common,
discriminatory practice of
disinvestment with lenders
being discouraged from issuing
mortgages in certain neighborhoods.
In Portland.
Banks use this map to highlight what
they considered the city's best areas in
green and hazardous areas in red albino.
With a large black population at
the time was formerly redlined,
with the particular hazard being
listed as racial and back then.
There were restrictions on where
communities of color could
live because of covenants,
and it would say things like no,
no ***** no Mexicans,
no Japanese could buy a home.
These signs are all part of the
historic Black Williams art project.
Kaleem, Talton, Davis and her husband
Cleo live in Albina and say over the
years a community was built here. The
sign is about the Urban League and this
really kind of talks about equal housing
but racist housing policies of the
past combined with construction
projects that demolished.
Homes led to more pavement and less parks,
making Albina disproportionately
warmer. Today between
the 1950s and 60s is when the Oregon
Department of Transportation.
Began running Highways I5 just ran a
trench right through our neighborhood.
Right now Laura Albina is
mostly concrete and concrete.
Definitely holds more heat.
There are studies tracking neighborhood
temperatures here in Portland, so this is
looking at the temperature
results for the afternoon and the
evening and in King County too.
These paved areas heat up
during the middle of the day.
A year ago, Laura Whiteley Bender,
King County's climate preparedness
specialist, was part of a heat mapping.
Project. On a July day,
drivers set out on 15 predetermined
routes at the same time,
collecting temperature data and
coming up with these results.
North Seattle and Light Blue was
much cooler than South Seattle.
It was also hotter along the Renton,
Kent and Auburn Corridor.
All places where there are larger
populations of communities of color across
the county at the same point in time,
there was a nearly 24 degree difference.
We were expecting to see
the urban heat island effect.
I think we were surprised at how large.
Temperature difference was we were also
surprised to see how clearly it stood out.
That's why when temperatures
hit triple digits in June,
the heat was more deadly.
In some ZIP codes than others.
As the event set up, it was sobering.
Have we seen the temperatures like
that here before? We have not.
We broke our records in multiple ways.
We know with climate change that we expect
to see and we are seeing more frequent,
more intense heat wave events
every time I think about it.
People died because they
were hot in their homes.
It makes no sense to me.
There are efforts underway in
Washington and Oregon to plant more
trees and find long term solutions.
I've been out until like 1:30 in the morning
delivering air conditioners and fans,
but Bird has no time to wait.
She's too busy getting ready for
the next round of unhealthy heat.
What we do know there's going to
be another heat wave and so now
you have some of the folks who are
who have been the most targeted.
You know, living in an area where
you can't even get relief from heat.
Is very sad, that's why she's here,
thank you. Thank you so much.
Doing all she can.
That's what it's all about.
I cannot read another report that
a person died because of heat.
That's crazy
if you or someone you know doesn't have
air conditioning, you're not alone.
KING5 Jake Whittenberg explains
how to make a do-it-yourself air
conditioner for under $15. Alright,
we need to find ways to cool off
in these temperatures, don't we?
I've got a pretty ingenious
way of making it portable.
Air conditioner for less than $15.00.
It may just be one trip to the store too.
Check this out.
You really only need three things.
Find a cooler.
Maybe it's a Styrofoam
cooler just laying around.
I found this compostable one for $10,
which was a good find.
You need two dryer vents.
I got these at a hardware
store for $2.00 apiece,
and you'll need a small fan.
Use one that you already have,
or if you can find 1,
they're not that expensive.
Now grab your cooler and trace a line to
cut a hole for a dryer vent on the side.
Remember to always slice away from your body,
and once you've got that whole cut,
fit a dryer vent inside.
Now do the same thing for
the other side of the cooler.
Next up is the fan time to cut a hole
for that on top and you want to make sure
that you're cutting this hole for the
fan just a little bit smaller than the
actual size of the fan itself so that
it doesn't fall through into the cooler.
Now before you put on the lid and the fan,
you've got to make the inside
of the cooler cold, right?
I just grabbed whatever ice pack I could
find, stuff it inside your cooler.
You could even use frozen food.
Make sure that doesn't go to waste.
You've gotta make it cold now.
Time to put on the fan.
The air should flow out of the dryer vents.
It's actually really cold and it can
get colder depending on how much ice
or ice packs you put in your cooler.
Obviously the fan will work for some breeze,
but we need to cool down with
these really hot temperatures.
You might want to try this
Jake Whittenberg King 5 News.