Hot Way to End the Summer

As I said in an earlier blog, on average the hottest time of the year in the Inland Northwest is the last week of July and the first week of August. But of course, averages are just that: averages.  A month ago it looked like this summer would hold true to form, with Deer Park airport hitting 99F on July 30th.  But it now looks like the traditional end of summer may be the hottest week. 

The computers initially were focused on a hot weekend, with a gradual cooling after Monday (the 25th). But it now looks like 90s may prevail all next week.

The culprit is of course, strong high pressure. Here’s the forecast weather map for Friday, courtesy of Tropical Tidbits. 


I won’t bore you, but the weather maps for all next week look pretty similar. It’s not until the end of next week that we may see some relief from the heat, just in time for Labor Day weekend. But that’s not guaranteed. 

With this kind of hot pattern, afternoon mountain thunderstorms will be a possibility next week. Very doubtful that they will bring any rain to the valleys, but the chances of rain aren’t zero.  Here’s the chances of rain for Spokane for the next 10 days. 

So how hot will we get?  Mid to upper 90s are a safe bet. 100F isn’t out of the question though. 

Last year Spokane Airport officially had 7 triple-digit days, an all-time record. But if you were reading this blog last summer, you may remember that there were some issues with the temperature sensor that made this record very doubtful. Deer Park airport had five such days last summer. 

Both locations have yet to hit 100F this summer. It’s been 6 years since we’ve had a summer without at least one triple digit day. They used to be rare; they’re much more common now.   Between 1943 and 1958, Spokane hit 100 only one time in that 16 year span.  

Oh, one more piece of weather trivia: the latest 100F day in Spokane is 31 August, set back in 2022.

If you’re trying to bale some second cutting, a northeast breeze will start tomorrow and continue through the weekend. This could inhibit dew formation. 

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