PORT ANGELES — A midsummer scorcher on the North Olympic Peninsula sent temperatures climbing into the mid-90s in Port Angeles and Sequim, with a near-record 87 degrees reported in Forks and an unofficial Peninsula-wide high of 103 recorded in Quilcene on Tuesday.
The highest temperature on the Peninsula was in Quilcene. If the temperature reported by a weather watcher becomes official, it will break Quilcene’s record of 100 set July 16, 1941, the National Weather Service said.
Expect more of the same today, forecasters say.
“It’s kind of an oppressive heat,” said Dennis D’Amico, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle.
“It has been muggy. Dew points have been running in the 60s. Generally when we get hot, usually we’re a little drier. It makes it a little more uncomfortable.”
Port Angeles reached 94 degrees at William R. Fairchild International Airport, where records have been kept since 2000.
“There’s not enough of a database to say if it’s a record or not,” D’Amico said.
Sequim recorded a high of 93.
Forks came within one notch of the 88-degree record set in 1974 at the Quillayute Airport just outside city limits.
Port Townsend had a high of 88 on Tuesday.
A high of 87 degrees in Port Hadlock and 89 in Port Ludlow were reported on the Weather Channel’s Web site, www.weather.com.
Weather watchers reported highs of 97 degrees near Mount Walker and 94 degrees in Brinnon.
Peninsula residents can expect to “add a degree or three” to Tuesday’s highs today, D’Amico said.
“We’re going to be warm right through Friday,” he said.
Clallam County Fire District No. 2 Chief Jon Bugher said the hot weather concerns him because of the fire potential as well as the health hazards.
“People need to be extremely careful in this kind of time,” Bugher said. “Stay hydrated and make sure that every bit of the coals are cold to the touch when cooking outside.”
Fires
A small brush fire prompted the brief closure of one lane of East Beach Road east of Lake Crescent after it was reported at 6:28 p.m. Tuesday, said Bugher in a prepared statement.
The fire burned salal, grass and trees in an area of about 45-feet by 100-feet before it was extinguised, preventing the spread to adjacent property, Bugher said.
The Department of Natural Resources saw two 1-acre fires on the east end of Jefferson County, said Travis Peek, fire operations forester.
One fire on a small spit of land near Port Ludlow burned about an acre while firefighters waited for access, which was cut off by the tides. A second fire was started by some garbage thrown out near the Hood Canal Bridge area, he said.
A structure fire near Sandy Shores Lake broke out Tuesday morning just after 10 a.m. Port Ludlow Fire and Rescue, East Jefferson Fire-Rescue and crews from the Department of Natural Resources battled the blaze for more than five hours, said Keppie Keplinger, spokeswoman.
She didn’t know Tuesday what kind of structure burned in the blaze that also charred 2 acres of brush and trees. No one was hurt. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Park fires
Two fires in Olympic National Park, which were ignited by lightning strikes, continued to smolder, park spokeswoman Barb Maynes said.
The trail to Lake Constance, about 2 miles northeast of the end of the Dosewallips Road, continues to be closed because of the fires, she said.
A fire that began July 11 near Lake Constance in the upper Dosewallips River drainage has grown from 10 acres reported Thursday to about 38 acres.
A 10-person crew attempted to set up a sprinkler system along Constance Creek but couldn’t finish the job.
“There were boulders about half the size of a Volkswagen bug falling toward them,” Maynes said. “It was simply too dangerous to stay.”
A fire that began June 13 in the upper Duckabush Valley has spread slowly; it now covers about 1.5 acres.
“Despite the hot weather and the vegetation within the wilderness, that fuel for the fire is still rather moist, so the fires are not spreading quickly,” Maynes said.
The fires are not put out as per park policy but are being closely monitored, Maynes said.
Although none of the fire districts received many calls for heat-related emergencies — only one or two possible cases in the past couple days were called in — all fire personnel caution residents about the dangers of the dry conditions.
Bugher said that the station has been called out to several lawn mower fires.
“The blades hit a rock and it creates a spark and that’s it,” he said. “It is very dry out there.”
Port Angeles Fire Marshal Ken Dubuc agreed.
“People need to pay a lot of attention, even to where they park their cars,” he said.
“I’ve seen cases of even a hot exhaust pipe on a car parked in the wrong place igniting a fire.”
Burn bans are in place in Clallam and Jefferson counties until further notice.
________
Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporter Erik Hidle contributed to this story.
