Union County temperatures set to heat up again for Labor Day
Published 1:00 pm Tuesday, August 30, 2022
- A bear attacked a La Grande man on Owsley Canyon Road during the early hours of Wednesday, May 24, 2023. The road, shown here on a smoky day in August 2022, leads up to the Mount Emily Recreation Area.
LA GRANDE — After a slight reprieve, temperatures in La Grande are expected to heat up once more in time for Labor Day weekend — but not for long.
Last weekend’s highs were markedly lower than last week’s forecast, dropping around 10 degrees. The weekend also brought cooler temperatures in the mornings, reaching the low 40s around dawn. Still, this week’s forecast predicts that temperatures will once again spike to the high 90s.
Rob Brooks, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Pendleton, noted that a high-pressure area coming out of Nevada and Utah and extending up into the Pacific Northwest — in an elongated format that he equated to a mountain ridge — may be to blame. But he asserted that these elevated averages shouldn’t stick around.
“We don’t anticipate a whole lot of more heating past this,” he said. “It’s going to get warmer, but we’re not looking forward to it becoming 100 (degrees) again.”
The average temperature for September will sit at 60.4 Fahrenheit, with an average low of 32 degrees. This weekend, highs will reach the low 90s and lows will drop into the high 40s, according to the National Weather Service. Labor Day will bring sunny skies and a high of 88.
High-pressure areas make it harder for clouds to accumulate, resulting in hotter, dryer temperatures. The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory for the lower Columbia River Basin of Oregon — not including Union County — urging residents to take precautions while outside and to drink plenty of fluids.
The hottest hours of the day are between 3-5 p.m. and night temperatures in the area are still above 65 or 70 — making it a challenge for people “to cool down overnight,” according to Brooks.
Temperatures will begin to dip again in the coming weeks, as the days get shorter. Brooks estimated that in the next few months, precipitation is expected to be at normal levels, while the temperature highs will remain slightly above average. The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center predicts most of Oregon will also receive normal precipitation this fall.
