Weekend weather: Showers to give way to sunshine over the weekend
The last days of spring will be true to form with rain showers on Thursday night and Friday giving way to a strong warming trend.
A decent shot of moisture is expected from a fairly fast-moving storm system approaching the Inland Northwest on Thursday morning.
Rain shower chances increase in the afternoon today and continue on into the evening as a low pressure area overtakes the region.
The low is drawing up subtropical moisture, causing forecasters to say that many areas away from the mountains could receive a tenth of an inch of rain or more.
By contrast, Coeur d’Alene could see rainfall amounts in excess of one-quarter inch.
Highs today and Friday should be in the upper 60s with lows near 50.
Moderate winds should accompany the storm, peaking on Friday with gusts to 24 mph in Spokane.
Skies should clear on Saturday and Sunday with highs going from 72 to 77 under mostly sunny skies with the arrival of an area of higher air pressure.
Summerlike sunshine arrives for Monday and Tuesday with highs going into the lower and middle 80s.
Lows will be solidly in the 50s starting Saturday night.
The summer solstice occurs at 9:24 p.m. on Tuesday.
Forecaster Matt Fugazzi of the National Weather Service said in his Wednesday forecast discussion that the “trend of dry conditions with increasing temperatures back to a few degrees above normal by Sunday and possibly five to ten degrees above normal – solidly in the 80s by Tuesday – looks likely at this time.”
In Spokane, the normal high is 73 with a normal low of 50 for this time of year.