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Forecasters now expect Portland’s holiday heat wave to extend well into next week, and county officials are setting up cooling shelters and stopping by homeless camps across the metro area to distribute water bottles, electrolyte packets and sunscreen.
The 100-degree heat is now expected to last through Tuesday, July 9, with the highest temperatures on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. “This heat wave will likely be remembered more for its duration than its intensity,” meteorologists with the National Weather Service’s Portland office wrote July 4.
They noted that Portland, Salem and Eugene have experienced fewer than five occasions when 100-degree highs extended for four or five days. “Four to five consecutive days of 100-to-106-degree heat with little relief at night is dangerous, especially to those sensitive to heat struggling to find a place to cool off,” the meteorologists wrote. “The longevity of this event will likely compound and exacerbate impacts.”
For those with means, the Oregon Coast provides a haven. Temperatures along the ocean aren’t likely to exceed the 80s.
But for those living in homes without air conditioning, or sleeping outside, the hot nights will provide little relief. Forecasters say it’s more likely than not that temperatures won’t fall below 70 degrees on Saturday, Sunday or Monday nights.
“This compounding effect of multiple hot days with warm nights will exacerbate the threat of heat-related illness, especially for those who are sensitive to heat and lack the ability to cool off,” NWS meteorologists write. “In that sense, this several-day-long stretch of 100-to-106-degree highs and lows struggling to fall below 70 degrees is potentially more dangerous than just a day or two of intense 110 degree heat followed by a quick cooldown.”
Multnomah County officials today announced that three cooling shelters would open at noon on Friday. The three cooling centers will be open noon to 10 pm Friday, July 5. (The county doesn’t predict how long the locations will stay open, but logic dictates they’ll be operational through Monday at least, especially after a high-profile fiasco at the end of January’s ice storm.)
The three sites are:
- Cook Plaza, 19421 SE Stark St., Gresham
- Portland Covenant Church, 4046 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Portland
- The Hugo, 6221 NE 82nd Ave., Portland
Meanwhile, the county extended hours at the Central and Gresham libraries to 9 pm. County officials are asking for volunteers to staff the shelters, which are being run by a blend of county and state workers and nonprofit contractors.
The Joint Office of Homeless Services has been ferrying emergency supplies directly to homeless camps. “Yesterday, the Joint Office supply center provided outreach groups with 29,040 individual bottles of water, 1,000 cooling towels, 2,500 electrolyte packets, 2,500 sunscreen packets, 500 reusable drinking bottles and 500 misting bottles,” officials wrote, “all of which will be distributed to people in need.”