Bone Dry July

Some may not have noticed, but it’s been a very dry July.  Officially at the Spokane Airport, they haven’t measured anything more than a sprinkle. Has there ever been a July with no rain at all?  Technically it’s happened only once in Spokane, and that was way back in 1883.  There’s been 15 Julys like this year where only a sprinkle fell the entire month. The same happened in 2017, 2013, 2008 and 2003.

To be fair, other locations in the Inland Northwest did receive rain. But mostly it was less than 0.10”. The exception was in the Colville area.


I showed this chart a couple of years ago at the Northeast Washington Hay Growers meeting. The blue line is the July rainfall each year at Spokane, while the green line sort of a moving average.


Between 1975 and 2000 there were several wet Julys.  But since that time, July rainfall has really fallen off to the point where it’s pretty much nonexistent.  In case you’re wondering, August shows the same thing.


You may have noticed that I’m talking about July rainfall like the month is already over.  It’s not, but our chances of rainfall are near-zero for the next 15 days.

Temperatures will continue to be a bit of a roller coaster.  We will warm into the lower 90s by the end of week as high pressure over the Rockies pushes a cold low away from the coast. But our nighttime temperatures will continue to drop into the 40s.  In fact, on Thursday morning we might drop to near 40F.  All of this is a product of clear skies and very dry air.  Dew may be hard to find, but the morning humidity should still be favorable for baling.


But the low eventually decides it’s had enough, and moves inland, bringing a dry cold front through the Northwest this weekend.



This will initially give us another windy Saturday.  Similar to last Saturday, wind gusts of 35-40 mph are possible. Sunday temperatures may not reach 80F.




After the passage of the low, high pressure will once again warm our temperatures next week.  But the jet stream will stay in our vicinity, which will keep our daytimes breezy.

Of course, all this dry, warm windy weather will keep our fire and smoke season going strong for the foreseeable future.






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