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Warm September, Wet October?

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As I mentioned in the previous blog, there was the potential for September 2025 to set a record for the warmest September ever recorded in Spokane. Now that we’ve turned the calendar, we can definitely say that September 2025 was the warmest on record, going back to 1881. Here’s the top 10 list.  A few things to note. September 2024 is third on the list of warmest Septembers. And 2022 is in 5th place. Is this a trend, or is something going on at the Spokane Airport? If you’ve read other blog entries you know I’ve pointed out that the temperature sensor at Spokane Airport is surrounded by a lot of concrete runways and tarmacs, which could contribute to a warm bias. But in this case, that’s not the sole cause.  If we look at other stations in the Northwest, the story is the same. Below is a map showing the ranking of 2025 temperatures in September. Missoula and Yakima also had their warmest September on record, with other locations coming close to setting records, including Lewi...
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Rain for the End of September

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September 2025 has provided us with a lot of sunshine and warm temperatures. In fact, with a week to go, Spokane is looking at the potential for its warmest September ever.  A lot could happen in that last week, so it’s not a guarantee.  But 2025 September is currently running almost 3 degrees warmer than the current record holder of 1938.  Remarkably, second place was set last September.  The trend of the last few decades is clearly for a warmer September. But the computer models expect the month to end on a cooler and wetter note.  We’ll have one more day in the 80s tomorrow (Thursday). And then a dry, breezy cold front will drop our temperatures back into the 70s. The wind and warmth on Thursday could cause some wildfire concerns.  A change in the weather pattern will occur next week.  The first front on  Sunday night and Monday will bring a low chance of showers.  Tuesday and Wednesday will have a high chance of rain.  And there’s co...
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A Review of Summer 2025

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As always, folks will differ in their opinion of what the summer weather was like. Was it a hot summer or just right?  Was it dry or wet? First, let’s start by looking at the entire lower 48 states. For temperatures, it was a little warmer than normal, but nothing outrageous.  The largest anomalies were in the Northwest. For precipitation, the West was drier than normal while the middle of the country was wetter than average. One notable exception to the dry conditions in the West was California Sierra Nevada as well as southeast Oregon. The monsoon season for Arizona and the Great Basin was a little disappointing .  A closer look at the summer precipitation of the Northwest shows that the dry conditions were confined largely to the Columbia Basin as well as western Washington and Oregon.  Southwest Oregon and north-central Montana had a wetter than normal summer.   One notable aspect of the map above is the area in dark red, which indicates the driest summer on...
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How Much Rain Will We Get?

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Our cooler weather the past couple of days isn’t due to a change in the weather pattern, but rather due to the wildfire smoke blocking some of the suns rays. Here’s a morning satellite picture, showing the thick smoke over eastern Washington and the slowly approaching clouds over southwest Washington.  Thankfully, our changing weather pattern will also push the smoke out of our area. Here’s a computer depiction of the smoke on Saturday morning.  And here’s what that computer predicts things will look like by Monday morning.  And as our weather pattern changes, we’ll say goodbye to the unusual late summer heat wave, and welcome in highs in the 70s, which is actually what we should be at for this time of year.  But when will the rain arrive and how much will we get?  Our first chance of rain will be Saturday night and Sunday.  This is a very low probability event, which is common with the first wave after a dry spell.  Sprinkles for most, although a few ...
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Is This Why the Spokane River is Running Dry?

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There were a couple of interesting articles in the Spokane news recently.  First, residents along parts of the Spokane River have noted that the river is actually going dry in some spots between Post Falls and downtown Spokane.  Here's a link to the Spokesman Review article .  This article does a nice job of listing a number of factors, including water management, heat, evaporation, drought, and the increased use of the Spokane aquifer, in part due to population increase. A few days later, there was another article pointing out that Spokane officially had it's driest summer (defined as June-August) ever (records began in 1881).  Here's a table of the 20 driest summers in Spokane. There's an interesting fact in this table.  Did you spot it?  Notice how many of the driest summers have occurred since 2000?  8 of the 20 driest summers have occurred in the last 25 years.   Here's a graph showing the summer precipitation for each year at Spokane....
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The End is In Sight

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We're currently in the middle of a rather unusual heat wave at the end of summer.  And some records could still be reached.  For those who aren't a fan of the heat, there's good news:  an end to the heat wave is in sight. Here's the somewhat odd weather map.  There's a skinny but strong area of high pressure over the Western US that extends up into BC and the Alaskan Panhandle. A weak low off the Washington coast is sending waves of moisture into our area at times.  This caused all of the clouds last night along with a few showers and thunderstorms.   Meanwhile, the eastern US is still experiencing fall-like temperatures.  Low temperatures in the 40s dipped all the way south into North Carolina this morning.  State College, PA has already had 3 nights in the 30s. By Thursday of this week, the weather pattern won't have changed a whole lot.  Another surge of cool air invades the Great Lakes region, while high pressure continues to dominat...
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Hot Way to End the Summer - Update

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In my last blog I mentioned a couple of things worth repeating: 1) there was no guarantee that we would see cooling by the weekend, and 2) there’s never been a 100F reading at Spokane Airport in September. Well, the computers are coming into better agreement on #1, and that could have implications on #2. First, let’s revisit the current weather map. Strong high pressure dominates the western coast of North America while a deep cool low pressure is giving the eastern US early fall weather.  What isn’t so obvious is that there’s actually a very minor low pressure disturbance over Oregon that will affect our weather.  Let’s look at a satellite image to see what I’m talking about. It’s actually made up of three circulations.  Rather complex, but also rather weak. They will very slowly move northward over the next few days, bringing with them a lot of clouds and moisture.  This is going to affect our weather in several ways.  The first is that we will see some gradua...
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