Blog Article
Best Weather Today: Pacific Northwest Peaks, Saturday Surprises
Seattle and Portland score Beautiful today while Saturday quietly delivers the week's cleanest conditions from Oregon to Vermont. Here's where to be outside.
The Pacific Northwest Peaks Today, Then Hands the Baton East
Yesterday, Austin, Minnesota was under 7 inches of rain and Interstate 90 was closed. The day before, South Dakota logged a 78 mph wind gust. July 2026 has been relentless across the middle of the country. So it's worth pointing out that while all of that was happening, Seattle was sitting at 71 degrees with a 53-degree dewpoint and barely a cloud in the sky.
Today is more of the same up there, and it's genuinely as good as it gets.
Today: The Northwest's High-Water Mark
Seattle, Portland, Tri-Cities, Spokane, Salem, and Eugene all score 92 out of 100 today, placing them at the top of the Beautiful category nationally. The zone-wide numbers are hard to argue with: dewpoints averaging 49.7°F, average winds of 9.1 mph with gusts only to 14.5 mph, precipitation probability at 1%, and cloud cover around 19%. The max heat index across the whole zone tops out at 95°F, and AQI sits at 39. That's a July day that actually feels like July is supposed to feel.
Portland hits 77°F under 2% cloud cover with a 50.7°F dewpoint. Seattle comes in at 71°F with a UV index of 7.5. These are patio breakfast numbers, farmers market numbers, leave-the-windows-open-all-day numbers.
Medford, OR is the warmest city in the zone at 89°F, but its dewpoint of 49.2°F keeps the heat stress well-managed and it still scores 92. The one caveat there: UV reaches 8.1, so sunscreen is worth it if you're spending real time outside in the Rogue Valley today.
What's keeping the zone from hitting Perfect? Two things that are honest and narrow. The zone UV of 7.6 just clears the Beautiful gate but misses the Perfect threshold of 7.0 or below, and the overall zone score of 86.4 sits 5.6 points short of the 92 floor that Perfect requires. On a July afternoon in the Pacific Northwest, that's about as close as it gets.
The Upper Great Lakes are also having a solid Thursday. St. Cloud, MN scores 82, and Superior, WI and Willmar, MN are posting Beautiful numbers as well. If you're anywhere along the northern Minnesota or Wisconsin lakeshore, today is a good day to be outside.
Friday Holds, Then Saturday Gets Interesting
Friday (Day 2) the Northwest stays Beautiful, and Medford and Eugene anchor the top of the national rankings. The zone score actually climbs to 91.1, the highest of the week. Marquette, MI quietly posts a 92 with a 74°F high, 57°F dewpoint, and light 6.6 mph winds — a genuinely underrated summer afternoon on Lake Superior.
But Saturday is where the story shifts.
By Saturday (Day 3), the best weather in the country is no longer anchored in Oregon. It's a corridor running from southern Oregon through the Upper Great Lakes and all the way to Burlington, Vermont. The zone scores 91.1 out of 100 — the highest Beautiful score of the week — with zero precipitation, average temperatures of 80°F, and winds averaging 9.4 mph gusting only to 12.8 mph.
Burlington, VT is the standout: 74.8°F high, 58.3°F dewpoint, 31% cloud cover, UV 7.4. That's a comfortable summer afternoon in the Champlain Valley, and it's arriving right as the Dead of Summer Music Festival is running in Manchester Center, Vermont, about 75 miles south. The broader region looks clean.
In Michigan, Saginaw and Midland both hit Beautiful on Saturday, though their dewpoints creep into the low 60s — still comfortable, but noticeably more humid than the Oregon or Vermont numbers. Grants Pass, OR also posts well at 86°F with a 51.8°F dewpoint.
The reason Saturday matters: it's the last clean day before a significant heatwave takes hold. WPC and CPC are both flagging dangerous heat building across the Northern Plains this weekend into early next week, with extreme heat watches already posted across parts of eastern Montana, Utah, and western Colorado. The ridge that's keeping the Northwest pleasant right now is about to expand and intensify, and by Days 4 through 7, the national Nice Weather zone contracts noticeably. The Northeast gets some relief mid-next week — Philadelphia and Manhattan both score well on Days 5 and 6 — but confidence drops at that range and the heatwave elsewhere is the dominant story.
You can track how all of this evolves on the Nice Weather outlook page.
The Oregon Streak Is Worth Noting
The weekly rankings are still dominated by southern Oregon. Rogue River, Gold Hill, Roseburg, and Central Point all carry a 7-for-7 streak of qualifying days this week with a mean score around 84.9 to 86.3. That's the most consistent nice-weather run anywhere in the country right now. If you're planning a trip to the Rogue Valley in the next week, the data is solidly in your favor — just pack sunscreen, because UV values in Medford regularly touch 8 or above even on the nicest days.
For the rest of the country: today and Saturday are the two days worth circling. Everything in between and after gets messier.