Dry air makes for August comfort

Dry, warm air continues to make a pleasant month out of August in the Inland Northwest. Highs should reach the lower 80s in the Spokane region today, and the humidity should stay low, but not as low as on Wednesday when the relative humidity went to 11 percent during the warmest part of the day. The dewpoint at the time had dropped to 23 degrees while the high at Spokane International Airport was 85. Not-so-dry conditions are expected today. The dewpoint at 7 a.m. was 36 degrees. Fire danger, even with the dry conditions, should diminish compared with the gusty winds Wednesday afternoon. Winds today should be light in Spokane, at 6 to 9 mph out of the southwest. A slow warm-up is expected through the weekend with highs going to the upper 80s by Saturday and Sunday. Sunshine will stay over the region. Currently, the jet stream is mainly over British Columbia with a smaller low-pressure area over California, leaving the Inland Northwest in a gap of calm weather between the two summer moisture tracks. Higher air pressure is likely to build into the region this weekend from the desert southwest, increasing the heat potential through middle of next week. At 7 a.m., it was 54 degrees at Spokane International Airport, 55 at Felts Field and Coeur d’Alene and 51 at Deer Park.