Warmer weather expected through Saturday

With Tuesday’s rainstorm departing the region, today’s weather should be the start of a short-term warming trend. Unfortunately, it won’t last long enough to make the Labor Day weekend a fully sunny affair. Highs will go to the lower 70s today in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene and then the upper 70s on Thursday and middle to upper 80s on Friday. Clouds today will give way to sun or mostly sunny skies. The summer weather should continue into Saturday with a high in the upper 70s under mostly cloudy skies. A relatively weak cold front that passes over the region sometime on Friday should show its effects on Sunday and Monday as the parent upper-level low pressure area arrives and takes residence over the region. Forecasters said rain showers from the low should be confined mainly to mountain areas, which could be an issue for weekend campers along with cooling overnight temperatures starting on Saturday. Lows in Spokane are expected to drop into the lower and middle 40s by Sunday night. On Monday, Spokane International Airport reported 0.16 inches of precipitation from a rainstorm that lasted for nearly eight hours, matching the forecast of up to 10 hours of steady light rain. At 7 a.m. today, the incoming warm air was already evident. It was 51 at Spokane International Airport, 54 in downtown Spokane, 52 in Coeur d’Alene, 51 in Deer Park and 53 in Pullman. The morning temperatures today are more than 10 degrees above some of the readings around the region on Monday and Tuesday mornings, including Coeur d’Alene and Pullman. Tuesday’s high in Spokane was 62.