PORTLAND, Ore. — The hottest temperatures of the summer are expected to arrive in Portland this week — bringing back unpleasant echoes of a heat wave last year that killed more than 100 Oregonians, many of them in the Portland area.
KGW chief meteorologist Matt Zaffino said temperatures will be in the 90s starting Monday through Friday, with a couple days of possible triple-digit weather during that stretch.
He said it'll be the longest, hottest heat wave of the year so far.
"I don't expect it to be epic like the heat wave last year," Zaffino said. "Remember, we went 108 [degrees], 112 then 116 — we're not going to do that. But it is going to get hot."
Starting with Monday, KGW's team of meteorologists expects much of next week to be in the mid-90s, with several days reaching the 100s.
Moreover, Zaffino said that morning lows will become increasingly uncomfortable as the week goes on.
"Morning lows in the upper 60s don't provide very significant overnight cooling," he said.
After the deadly 2021 heat wave, Portland launched a program to install air conditioning units in apartments and homes. As of this week, the program had succeeded in installing 515 units of an anticipated 3,000 by the end of summer. While still far from the goal, the current number represents a marked improvement from last month, when only about a dozen had been installed.
While the Pacific Northwest will see this heat wave this week, it's not expected to compare in the near-term with the recent high temperatures seen in Europe, at least not in terms of impact.
The United Kingdom broke its record for highest temperature ever registered Tuesday amid the European heat wave, reaching 104 degrees. While not an unusually high temperature for some parts of the world, it was a major departure for the temperate nation where few people have air conditioning.
In the U.K., France, Spain, Portugal, Slovenia and Bosnia, the high temperatures provoked a spate of wildfires. In some areas, firefighters continued to battle those fires despite temperatures cooling as of Thursday last week.
