Published:Wednesday, July 9, 2008 10:40 AM PDT
Serving the South Coast of Oregon

Thermometer points to summertime highs
Wednesday, July 9, 2008 10:40 AM PDT

Summer’s finally here.

Anybody who hasn’t turned on a fan, thrown on a short-sleeved shirt or driven with the windows down in their car must be living in a cave — or on the ocean.

The wind has been blowing from the north with a vengeance, with 35 to 45 mph winds pushing the water into steep, choppy waves of 8 feet high and more.

The breeze, though, also has come on land to provide some relief to sun-baked landlubbers.

At the Southwest Oregon Regional Airport, the high for Tuesday was a mere 70 degrees. The mercury at other southern Oregon cities, particularly in Curry County, nearly blasted off the tops of thermometers.

Brookings hit a high of 108 degrees Tuesday, the National Weather Service said, a whopper even for the region that’s known as Oregon’s Banana Belt.

Around 8 a.m. today, other Curry County cities recorded 67 degrees Fahrenheit at the Port Orford dock, 87 degrees at Flynn Prairie near Gold Beach and 88.9 degrees at the Brookings airport.

That’s a lot of hot. It’s a hazard as well, the NWS said in a statement.

The service posted a red flag warning today for much of Curry County, primarily the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, until 8 p.m. today.

“A red flag warning means that critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now or will shortly,” the statement said. “A combination of strong winds, low relative humidity and warm temperatures will create explosive fire growth potential.”

The warm conditions — albeit gusty — will continue for the next couple of days, with highs at the coast in Coos County in the mid-60s to 70s and inland to the mid-80s.


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