08/07/06 Heat May Return

Heat may return. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. The weather over the Pacific Northwest in the last couple of weeks has been quite pleasant. At least with the triple digit temperatures behind us, enjoying upper 70 and lower 80 degree temperatures has been a welcome relief. Farmers and home garden enthusiasts have been breathing easier since it's usually preferable to cook your fruits and veggies on the stove and not still on the vine. According to meteorologist Tim Creek from the Weather Center we may see a bit warmer temps coming. CREEK: I just don't see it; in fact it looks like there might be some minor cooling on Monday. Now I will say this, I do think that high pressure is going to snap back over us sometime during the month of August and we have another similar heat type of wave, I just don't think it's going to happen next week. While the East coast has been dealing with the intense heat wave the Northwest endured it looks like parts of the West may be in for another scorcher. CREEK: I do think that west, western United States; Nevada, Utah maybe into western Montana will have some of that type of heat. The charts I have show the heat over like the 4 corners, southwest into Nevada, Southern California where it's warm but not hot, hot. As for the Pacific Northwest, Creek says the indicators show a warm up coming. CREEK: As we get maybe passed that weekend, maybe into the next week possibly it could build back into the area but I think our heat wave is going to come in the second week of August. My gut feels that we'll see another similar event where we have a 5 or 6 day stretch of 100 to 108 degrees. Crops in Europe have been hammered by scorching heat over the past several weeks. Agriculture Department Meteorologist Mark Brusberg says the hot weather in Europe is causing a two-fold problem. BRUSBERG: This is having sort of a two-fold effect on crops. It's obviously stressing the summer crops, it's helping to dry down and mature the winter grains and oil seeds but in some of the more northern growing areas it's so hot that its reportedly pushing the crops toward maturity at the expense of some of the grain fill. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.