Inland Northwest Hay Weather

 Despite what your phone app may or may not say, there is a chance of a nocturnal lightning show tonight.  But no, there won't be much if any rain with it. Below is what one computer model thinks the radar will look like around 1am.  But it's worth pointing out that other models have absolutely nothing in our area.  In other words, there's a chance, but it's not a 100% certainty.  After this summer's 17th day of 90F or better today (Deer Park averages 22 days in a summer), we'll cool down back into the upper 80s for the next couple of days.  But the 90s will be back on Tuesday and last for the rest of the week.  So it's likely we'll wind up with more than average 90F+ days this summer, which will be the third summer in a row. Humidities will also be very low when the heat returns as dew points will be in the 30s.  But by next weekend, there's a chance that some southwest monsoon moisture will work its way into our area.  This could lead to some thund

 Amusement parks are a popular attraction during the summer, and the rollercoaster is still sought by many.  This summer we're in a bit of a temperature rollercoaster.  And that's probably a good thing.  Everyone gets a few days of what they like.  To show what I mean, here's the temperature graph for Spokane Airport.  The dark blue bars represent the daily temperature.  The top of the bar is the high temperature, the bottom is the low.  The warm ups are gradual until they reach the 90s, and then they come crashing back down to around 80 for a couple of days before the next warm up begins. The reason for this rollercoaster is the jet stream.  We talked about this in our last blog.  The heat has been in the southern states this summer.  The high pressure over the desert Southwest wants to amplify into our area, and does every so often, only to get pushed east and beaten down by a cool low pressure system from the Gulf of Alaska. Here's the weather map from Thursday morni

 As we near the climatologically hottest weeks of the year (last week in July and first week in August), it appears that the atmosphere is pretty much sticking close to the script.  We've had some hot spells already, and those look to increase. First, we're looking at a hot weekend.  Strong high pressure centered over California has built a ridge over the western states and into BC.  But a low is lurking off the coast with another low over Alaska. The Alaska low will drop southward into the Gulf of Alaska.  This will kick the current Gulf of Alaska low inland, moving through our area on late Sunday and Monday.  This will be a dry weather system with maybe a few showers near the BC border.  But the main weather with this low will be wind.  Sunday will be hot with a few gusts in the late afternoon.  The wind aloft will increase Sunday night.  This will keep our overnight temperatures warmer.  Dew will probably only form in a very localized sheltered valley. Winds will increase on

 The weather this past week has been rather repetitive.  Warm/hot days, cool nights, and afternoon mountain thunderstorms.  For the most part, these storms remain over the mountains, and if they try to drift off to the valleys, they die off quickly, but possibly bringing a sprinkle or light shower to the valley before they dissipate.  Here's what they looked like on radar yesterday (Friday) afternoon. This pattern will continue for this weekend, with a change coming on Monday.  And it's kind of interesting how this change will come about.  Back on Thursday, there was a big ridge of high pressure in the Gulf of Alaska.  But there were also 3 minor little waves to monitor.  One was up in the Yukon, one off the WA/OR coast, and one out towards Hawaii. By Saturday afternoon, the Yukon wave will have dropped southward, to just off the BC coast.  Meanwhile the other two lows will be merging off the West Coast.  These waves will merge again as they push onshore as a fairly respectable

If you've read any of my blogs this spring, you'll likely have noticed that I often refer to dew point, and rarely mention relative humidity.  Some of you may wonder why that is.  And does it relate to the physical formation of dew when you're hoping to bale your alfalfa at 4am?   This blog will be a little long and detailed.  You'll probably want to sit down with a cold drink to read this one. There are several ways to measure and express the moisture in the air.  The partial reason for this is that warm air can hold more moisture than cold air.  So some measurements of atmospheric moisture are relative (e.g. relative humidity, mixing ratio) while others are absolute (e.g. dew point, specific humidity, precipitable water).  We'll start with the absolute ones first.  These represent that actual amount of moisture in the atmosphere.   Specific Humidity I haven't mentioned this one yet, and it's not used all that much.  But it's important because it is the

Our dry cold front yesterday brought the anticipated gusty winds along with much drier air.  Temperatures behind this front will be in the lower to mid-80s through the holiday Fourth, with an afternoon breeze.  Good hay-drying weather if you still have some hay down. If you're looking to bale some alfalfa, dew may be hard to come by tonight (Sunday night) since the air is so dry.  Here's the relative humidity forecast for the next 10 days. Humidity should be a bit higher Monday night, and quite a bit higher Tuesday night.  You'll have a better chance of a light dew on those nights, and thereafter. Temperatures will climb into the lower 90s by the end of this week and continue through the weekend.  But some atmospheric moisture will also return to the area.  This will probably mean the return of mountain showers by Friday and the weekend.  The European ensemble (not shown) keeps those showers over the mountains.  But the US ensemble would say that the valleys and even the Ba