I’m working in Victoria this afternoon and it’s clear blue skies over here.

Hmm. Just a slight 25 degree difference at day 5 for Salem.

Euro and EuroAI really bucking the cpc prediction of heat. Kind of miraculous and a pleasant surprise. Persistent summer onshore flow feels like a throwback to a different era.

Yeah, 1997 is what you're probably thinking of with the similar progression. Lots of southerly flow that summer so it ended up fairly humid and a bit warm for the time, but ultimately mild with no high end heat at all and with plenty of late summer rain/convective opportunities. And a wavetrain that kept things reasonably progressive outside of that same ridgy early May window (which we also had this year).

Here we go again tomorrow and Sunday. The HRRR underestimated the south/west extent of the smoke (as well as the density of it farther south) for the current event, so will be interesting to see if that happens again this time.