It's hot here.

City beach, today.

This is very strange for Portland.


School just started, but students are getting out early tomorrow because of "extended hot weather." It's not just the heat; there's so much smoke around that the sun burns a neon red (when it's even visible). Most of the schools don't have AC, so they would normally open windows to cool the building off... but all the smoke means there's an air quality alert and the windows have to stay closed. As the thermometers approach 100F tomorrow, children will head home.

Today's headline: Ash Falls Like Snow Across Portland as Wildfire Tears Through the Columbia River Gorge. (Also, whereinthegorge.com.)

I don't know what the kids will do with their free time, but a lot of the adults escaped to the coast this weekend. A holiday weekend + 20 degree temperature drop near the ocean + less smoke = exodus. Facebook is full of beach sunset photos and sighs of relief: "it's only in the 80s out here."

We did not join the weekend stampede to the coast. These pictures are from a chilly day in June, stashed away for a hot day like today.

What's it like right now where you are?