Jamie Test of Portland wipes the water from his face after cooling off in the fountain at Tom McCall Waterfront Park, Sept. 5, 2024. "The heat waves are getting real," said Test, who brought his family to the waterfront for relief from the heat. Excessive heat warnings will remain in effect on Friday.
Alan Zhou / OPB
Temperatures will continue to be near the triple digits in areas of Oregon and Southwest Washington through Friday. With the extreme heat setting in, local officials have offered up resources to stay cool.
The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for much of the Willamette Valley. That warning is set to last until 10 p.m Friday, although temperatures are expected to stay hot through Saturday. Other areas across Central Oregon and the coastal range are also under a heat advisory.
Some schools in the Portland metro area will dismiss students early or close entirely Friday. Portland Public Schools will send students home three hours early in schools that don’t have air conditioning. Schools with AC will operate on normal schedules.
North Clackamas schools are closed and after-school care is canceled.
A more complete list of school closures and early dismissals for the Portland, Salem and Vancouver areas is available here.
The late-season heat wave has prompted several county officials to open up cooling centers and offer other resources.
Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson declared a state of emergency effective at 10 a.m. Thursday and opened two cooling centers. One is at Cook Plaza located at 19421 Southeast Stark Street in Gresham, the other is at Portland Covenant Church at 4046 Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Portland. Those centers are open from noon to 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday.
Chris Voss, the director of emergency management at Multnomah County, said TriMet, the Portland-area transit agency, will not turn away anyone riding to or from the cooling centers.
“If people are headed to one of those cooling centers and they cannot afford a fare, we want to let them know that they can actually ride or head to one of those locations for free,” he said. “They do not have to pay the fare if they don’t have the ability to pay that fare.”
Chris Voss, Multnomah County Emergency Management director, at a Sep. 5, 2024 press conference. Voss said the Portland-area public transit system, TriMet, will be offering free rides to and from cooling centers for free.
Alejandro Figueroa / OPB
Multnomah County Library will keep the Central Library open until 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, along with several other branches regularly scheduled to remain open until 8 p.m. The Gresham, Hillsdale and Hollywood libraries are also open until 8 p.m.
In Multnomah County, officials activated outreach protocols on Wednesday to ensure cooling kits and other hot weather supplies reach people experiencing homelessness.
Cooling centers are available at other counties, including one in Washington County where the Beaverton City Library Main, with extended lobby hours, will be open until 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday.
For more information about cooling centers, splash pads or any other available resources, people are asked to call 211 or visit the website.
Willamette Valley-area county resources:
- Multnomah County will have two main cooling centers open Thursday and Friday until 9 p.m. Several library branches will stay open longer. Parks with misting stations, interactive fountains and splash pads are listed on this map.
- Washington County will have several community centers and libraries open with extended hours; those locations are listed on this map.
- Clackamas County has a list and a map of several locations to cool down.
- Marion County has a list of available cooling centers here.
- Lane County has a list of cooling centers here and other heat- and smoke-related resources here.
- Clark County in Washington state has a hot weather safety resource site here and a cooling center map list. The Council for The Homeless in Clark County also posted a list of additional sites to cooldown.
