Head west - it's cooler there.

Byline: SUSAN PALMER The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran 7/11/02): The 100-degree temperature at 4:54 p.m. Tuesday in Eugene was recorded at the intersection of West 11th Avenue and Monroe Street. A story on Wednesday's City/Region cover gave the incorrect address.

Kim Hoffmiller was installing red paving bricks in the new sidewalk along Broadway west of Willamette Street, but if he had his druthers, he'd be fishing on the north Santiam River.

At noon in downtown Eugene on Tuesday it was a sweltering 89 degrees.

"Bending down looking at this concrete, the sun on our backs, it's miserable," Hoffmiller said.

Over on West 11th Avenue, a light sheen of sweat coated Matthew Jacks' forehead. But Jacks was on a mission, looking for work and dropping his resume off at businesses along the busy avenue.

"Yeah, I'm feeling it," Jacks said.

It was cooler when he started out the day's job hunt at 8:30 a.m. on River Road.

If he could, he said, he'd be stretched out under the shade of a tree beside the cool flow of the Willamette River.

Weeding the garden at the northeast corner of Highway 126 and Territorial Road in Veneta, all Shelly Domino wanted was a glass of water. Her water bottle had sprung a leak earlier in the day, and she was parched.

"I'm waiting for somebody to show sympathy and bring me something to drink," she said. "I thought it was hot yesterday. I'm most certainly going to die out here today."

While water fantasies buoyed folks stuck on the east side of the Coast Range, folks on the west side got to enjoy the real deal.

Karie Lamb of Springfield couldn't have picked a better week to head for the coast. She, her fiance and their respective children were spending five days at the Harbor Vista campground just east of the North Jetty in Florence, she said.

"We would have come no matter what the weather," Lamb said. "But this makes it even better. I don't like the heat."

Brian Walker's kids threw themselves into the light surf at the North Jetty beach only to shiver later in the stiff breeze that came off the water.

An Idaho Falls, Idaho, resident visiting the Oregon Coast with his family and friends, Walker said he was enjoying the day even more since he'd learned that back in Idaho Falls it was 95 degrees.

It's naturally cooler by the ocean simply because water is cooler than land, especially during spring and summer when upwelling brings colder water up from the depths to the ocean surface, said state climatologist George Taylor.

Cool winds blow in off that water, cutting the heat.

Meanwhile, here in the southern Willamette Valley, we're experiencing east winds, which are pulling Eastern Oregon's hot weather our way, Taylor said.

That heat has settled in for a lengthy visit, forecasters say. We can expect cloudless scorchers through Friday with daytimes highs between 90 and 95, according to the National Weather Service and evening lows between 55 and 60.

Saturday and Sunday, partly cloudy skies may ease temperature down into the mid-80s.

SEEKING THE HEAT

Officially, Eugene missed setting a record high Tuesday. The National Weather Service temperature gauge at the Eugene Airport recorded 93 degrees - 3 degrees short of the record set in 1952.

Unofficially, our Acu-Rite digital thermometer recorded 100 degrees in at least one spot in town.

That's not surprising, said meteorological technician Gerry Heffel of the Portland National Weather Service office.

"You get near a water source, it's going to be cooler. If you're surrounded by concrete or there's no air circulation, it'll be warmer," he said.

Here's what our thermometer recorded in the shade at various stops on the road to Florence, where plenty of folks headed to beat the heat.

DOWNTOWN EUGENE: 89 degrees at 11:58 a.m., at Broadway and Willamette Street, but a light breeze makes it seem cooler.

VENETA: 88 degrees at 12:26 p.m. No breeze here to dry your sweat.

HIGHWAY 126 TUNNEL: 86 degrees at 1:10 p.m. The Douglas firs shading the road on either side make this stretch a treat.

MAPLETON: 90 degrees at 1:21 p.m. We thought it would be cooler here along the Siuslaw River.

NORTH JETTY BEACH: 77 degrees at 1:48 p.m. A brisk breeze off the water chills swimmers. Otherwise, summer nirvana.

OLD TOWN FLORENCE: 87 degrees at 3:30 p.m. You don't have to get far from the water to feel the creeping afternoon heat.

BACK IN EUGENE: 100 degrees at 4:54 p.m. at West 11th Avenue and Monroe Street. Better head for the air conditioning.

CAPTION(S):

Brian Walker of Idaho Falls, Idaho, warms the cheeks of his daughter Kelsey, 13, after she cooled off in the ocean at the North Jetty beach in Florence. Bricklayer Kim Hoffmiller (left) fights heat on Eugene's Broadway.