Washington heat to ease this weekend

SPOKANE — More hot weather is forecast through Friday across Washington, but the National Weather Service says temperatures should ease back toward normal this weekend. This has been the 10th-warmest July on record in Spokane where Friday’s forecast high of 90 would be the 10th straight day of temperatures at 90 degrees or hotter. A weak cold front Friday will start a modest cooling trend with temperatures falling to the 80s across the Inland Northwest. The average temperature so far this month in Spokane has been 73.8 degrees. That is a tenth of a degree warmer on average than July 2006. The hottest July averaged 75.9 degrees in 1906 with the second-hottest July in 2007 at 75.6 degrees. (The average comes from adding highs and lows each day, dividing that by two and then dividing by the number of days in the month.) A weak cold front Friday is expected to turn the weather back to more normal temperatures as lower air pressure moves into British Columbia. The pressure change will also bring an increase in winds along the eastern Cascade slopes and adjacent valleys. Spokane’s high temperatures should be 94 today, 90 on Friday, 85 on Saturday and 84 on Sunday. Winds of 10 to 15 mph with gusts to 20 are expected in Spokane on Friday from 2 to 8 p.m. The heat combined with wind means wildfire danger, and there’s a red flag warning from Thursday afternoon to Friday night in an area that includes Ellensburg and Yakima. There’s a fire weather watch for the area including the Tri-Cities and Walla Walla. Wind gusts could reach 25 mph in some locations in the warning areas. With the cooling trend, forecasters say weekend highs will slide into the 80s in Eastern Washington and 70s in Western Washington.