Another Warm Up and Cool Down

We have a few more days of heat before cooler weather arrives this weekend. Here’s the current weather map.  High pressure over the central US is nosing into the Northwest, giving us our current heat.  Kind of a strange pattern.


There are two low pressure area of note in the map above.  One is off the California coast, while the other is way up north, west of Alaska.  These two will combine for a broad area of low pressure off the northwest coast, pushing the heat to our east by the weekend.




As usual, the transition from heat to cooler weather will come with some related weather.

  • Wednesday: hottest day of the week with temperatures 95-100.
  • Thursday: Showers and thunderstorms are predicted to move through the area Thursday morning.  More showers and thunderstorms could develop over the northern mountains in the afternoon.  Precipitation amounts should be very light. Less than 0.10”.  A bit of a breeze in the late afternoon and through the night which will inhibit dew.
  • Friday:  a few degrees cooler but windy, with gusts to 30 mph. This could cause concerns for new or existing fires.
  • Saturday: cooling back into the upper 80s.  Windy with gusts to 35 mph (see graphic below).  Possibly some morning dew.


  • Sunday: coolest day of the week with a high in the lower to mid 80s. Breezy with wind gusts to 20 mph. Better chance of morning dew.
  • Next week.  Temperatures warming back into the 90s by midweek.  The Four corners high will push our cooler low pressure farther off the coast, for another round of heat.


For those who care about the wildfire smoke, the westerly winds will push out the smoke by Thursday.  The continued windy conditions through the weekend should keep our skies clear of smoke for the most part.  But having the fires so close to us, it doesn’t take much for the smoke to reappear.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The End is In Sight

Image
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...
Read more

When Can You Start Cutting?

Image
The answer to this blog’s title isn’t an easy one, and it’s going to depend on what risk you’re willing to take. The overall set up is this. The large low pressure system will wobble around the Northwest and vicinity for the next few days. But even when the low is east of us, we’re not out of the woods. Rainfall over Montana or even BC can wrap around the low into our area, even as late as Tuesday. So if you want a sure-fire dry forecast, you’ll probably have to wait until Wednesday.  But some folks have a lot of hay to cut and can’t wait that long. So here’s some probabilities of rain and amounts to consider.  If you live up north near Colville or Newport, odds are pretty high that you’ll see more rain, especially on Sunday night and Monday.  And it could be as much as a third of an inch. If you’re closer to the Deer Park area, the story is similar, but the amounts and probabilities are a bit lower.  Maybe a quarter inch? And if you’re down by Spokane, well then the...
Read more

Rain Returns - Update

Image
The computers are remaining true to their word.  Our long dry spell will be ending on Wednesday, with the potential for a nice rainfall.  More showery chances of rain then continue through the weekend. First I’ll show you the average of all of the computer forecast rainfall for Wednesday. 0.1” around Spokane, with 0.25” north and east of the metro . Here’s a few of the individual computer forecasts.  The US GFS model gives around a half inch to parts of northeast Washington. . The UK is similar to the blend of models. The European AI forecast is a bit more generous with the rainfall.  And lastly the European model predicts over an inch for parts of Ferry and Stevens counties.  There could be some thunderstorms on Wednesday as well.  So everyone should get a little rain, but some folks could get more. Tuesday: Sunny and very warm.  Highs in the 80s. Wednesday: showers and thunderstorms.  Highs in the mid to upper 60s. Could be gusty in the afternoo...
Read more