Blog Article
Best Weather July 13-19: Pacific Northwest Peaks, Coast Holds
Today is the top-scoring day of the week in Seattle, Portland, and the Shenandoah Valley. Here's where Nice weather holds through Sunday and where heat takes over.
The Pacific Northwest Peaks Today, Then the West Coast Holds the Line All Week
The previous nice weather post called Sunday the last Beautiful day before the heat dome took over east of the Cascades. That was right. Today, Monday July 13, is the final day the Pacific Northwest and a few scattered eastern spots are scoring at the top of the chart. After this, the good weather pulls back to the coast and stays there.
So if you're in Seattle, Portland, or the Willamette Valley, go outside today. Seriously.
Today: Beautiful From the Sound to the Shenandoah
Seattle and Portland both come in at a score of 92 out of 100, which puts them in the Beautiful category. Portland is posting a high of 82.7°F with completely clear skies and a dewpoint of 54.4°F. Seattle is a touch cooler at 71.6°F, with a dewpoint of 49.6°F and 7 percent cloud cover. Winds in both cities are light, around 8 to 9 mph. The whole zone averages just 6 percent sky cover and a 2 percent precipitation probability. That's about as open and dry as mid-July gets in the Northwest.
What keeps today from reaching Perfect? Midsummer sun angle, mostly. Portland's UV comes in at 7.6 and Clovis, NM, which also scores 92, is sitting at UV 8.7. The zone-wide UV average of 7.9 is just above the Perfect gate of 7 or below. AQI values at Portland and Clovis are also nudging above the 35 threshold that Perfect requires. Worth noting: if you're out in Clovis or eastern New Mexico today, sun protection matters at UV 8.7.
On the other side of the country, Harrisonburg, Virginia scores 92 as well, with a high of 79.1°F, 15 percent clouds, and a dewpoint of 62.3°F. That's the warmest dewpoint in the top zone, and it's the main reason Harrisonburg sits near the floor of Beautiful rather than pushing higher. Still, zero precipitation chance and winds at 6 to 7 mph make it a genuinely lovely day in the Shenandoah Valley. If you're planning a morning hike on Skyline Drive or a patio lunch in town, today is your day.
Altoona and State College in Pennsylvania are also scoring 92 today, which is a nice surprise for central Pennsylvania. Both cities are sitting in the Beautiful zone under dry air that's mixing down from the north, keeping heat indices well in check despite highs approaching 90°F.
Tuesday: The Willamette Valley and Harrisonburg Hold On
Tuesday is where the geographic story gets specific. The Beautiful zone contracts sharply. Eugene, Springfield, and Corvallis in the Willamette Valley all score 92, with highs around 78 to 79°F, dewpoints near 52 to 54°F, and winds under 10 mph. Eugene's AQI comes in at 43 and UV at 7.9. Salem scores 82, pulled down mainly by an AQI of 53, which the discussion ties to smoke from the East Evans Creek fire drifting toward the Cascades. If you're in Salem on Tuesday, air quality is worth watching, especially for anyone sensitive to smoke.
Harrisonburg holds at 92 on Tuesday as well, with a high of 85.4°F, zero cloud cover, and winds barely above 6 mph. The UV ticks up to 8.2, which clears the Beautiful gate but not the Perfect gate. The apparent temperature reaches 90.7°F, so it's warm, but the heat index holds at 85.4°F and there's no moisture stress to speak of. A great day for the Shenandoah Valley Farmer's Market or an afternoon on the Greenway.
Seattle and Portland drop to Nice on Tuesday, not because anything goes wrong, but because the ridge is shifting and temperatures are climbing toward the upper 80s and low 90s inland. The dewpoint stays manageable, but the heat stress fraction ticks up enough to keep both cities below Beautiful.
Also worth flagging for Tuesday: an Enhanced Risk of severe thunderstorms is posted for northern New England, centered on Vermont and northern Maine, with damaging wind the main threat. If you're near Burlington or Bangor, Tuesday afternoon is not the time to be at an outdoor event.
The Rest of the Week: The Coast Holds, Everything Else Struggles
From Wednesday through Sunday, the story is simple and consistent. A strong upper-level ridge anchored over the northwestern CONUS keeps a narrow corridor of Nice weather along the Pacific Coast and into parts of the Intermountain West. Outside that corridor, heat stress and an active convective pattern across the central and eastern US hold most of the country to Fair or Decent at best.
The forecast-day cap limits Days 4 through 7 to Nice as the ceiling, so no day in the back half of the week reaches Beautiful anywhere. That's not a model uncertainty issue — it's the structure of the outlook system at extended range.
The Pacific Coast corridor does hold up reasonably well, though. San Jose scores 92 on Wednesday, with a dewpoint of 43°F and essentially no clouds. Ukiah matches at 92. The catch is that interior California locations like Redding are getting clipped by the heat dome's edge — a high of 104°F pushes Redding out of the scoring range entirely on Wednesday. The corridor of genuinely comfortable air is narrow, hugging the coast and the Bay Area.
By the weekend, Los Angeles and San Diego are cracking the top of the Nice rankings, with scores of 82. Southern California's marine layer keeps temperatures manageable and dewpoints low even as the broader pattern stays locked in heat. Spokane, Washington also shows up in the Nice tier on Sunday, which reflects the ridge beginning to shift and allow slightly cooler air into the inland Northwest.
For the rest of the country east of the Rockies, the week-ahead picture is genuinely difficult. The WPC extended discussion flags dangerous heat continuing across the northern Plains and Midwest through the end of the week, with the ridge eventually linking up with the subtropical Atlantic high to push heat into the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic on Thursday before gradually shifting south. Monsoonal moisture is adding daily storm chances across the Four Corners states and into the northern Rockies. The Hill Country and Edwards Plateau in Texas are staring down multi-day heavy rainfall that could reach 6 to 8 inches with locally higher totals — that's a separate and serious story already covered on the daily blog.
The Weekly Winner: Southern Oregon
The weekly top city rankings tell an interesting geographic story. Roseburg, Oregon sits at number one with a mean score of 86.3 across all seven days and seven out of seven days rated at Nice or better. Sutherlin, Green, and Roseburg North round out the top four, all from the same pocket of southern Oregon's Umpqua Valley. Corvallis and Albany, Oregon show up at ranks 22 and 23, both averaging 84.7 with seven Nice-or-better days.
This isn't a coincidence. The Umpqua Valley sits in a sweet spot — sheltered enough from the coast to avoid persistent marine cloud but not so far inland that the heat dome bakes it the way it does the Sacramento Valley. It's been scoring consistently all week, and the data backs that up across the full seven-day window.
For the full city-by-city breakdown and interactive maps, head over to the Nice Weather outlook page.
One Quick Note on the All-Star Game
The MLB All-Star Game is tonight in Philadelphia. The previous post covered the forecast in detail, and the short version holds: Philadelphia is in the Nice zone today, not Beautiful, with dewpoints in the upper 50s and a modest storm chance. It's not a perfect baseball night, but it's not a washout either. Temperatures in the upper 80s with manageable humidity — bring water, find some shade before first pitch, and hope the storm chances stay isolated.
The Practical Summary
Today is the peak. If you're in the Pacific Northwest, the Willamette Valley, central Pennsylvania, or the Shenandoah Valley, get outside. Patio breakfast, a trail run, a long bike ride — whatever you've been putting off, today earns it.
Tuesday stays Beautiful in the Willamette Valley and Harrisonburg, but the smoke caveat in Salem is real. Wednesday through Sunday, the West Coast corridor holds Nice conditions while the rest of the country navigates heat and storms. Plan accordingly.