Temperature Takes A Jump Thermometers Again May Reach Records, But This Week It’S Heat

Tue., June 15, 1999

By Mike Prager mikeprager15@gmail.com (509) 459-5454

What a difference a week makes.

A forecast high of 93 degrees in Spokane today is 37 degrees hotter than last Tuesday’s high of 56.

If it gets to 93 today, Spokane would break the previous daily record of 92 degrees set in 1961.

The late spring heat comes just six days after the city shivered to a record low of 40 degrees last Wednesday morning.

Elsewhere in the region, the forecast for today calls for highs of 92 in Coeur d’Alene and Moscow, 95 in Lewiston and 96 in Colville.

Forecaster Lyle Hammer of the National Weather Service in Spokane said today’s extreme heat will be short-lived. A thermal low pressure area from the south is expected to retreat to southern Idaho on Wednesday.

The change should set up a weak onshore flow of slightly cooler air off the Pacific Ocean. Temperatures are expected to drop back into the low- to mid-80s for the rest of the week.

The flow of air from the southwest is expected to bring a slight chance of thunderstorms on Wednesday through Saturday.

“We are not going to cool off any more than that,” Hammer said.

This is good news for gardeners who have watched their tomatoes and other plants languish in the lingering spring chill.

Forecasters said the hot weather will trigger a new rush of water from the high elevation snowmelt, but rivers for now were not expected to flood.

Light precipitation in May and a gradual melting of mountain snows have reduced the risk of floods.

Still, rivers in North Idaho and Eastern Washington are expected to flow at 14 to 40 percent above normal for this time of year.

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