Summer temperatures return Saturday, Sunday

The latest Pacific low pressure area is exiting the region today, but its cooler air will keep temperatures down until Saturday. Highs may only reach the lower 70s under mostly sunny skies and a 20 percent chance of showers this morning. Higher air pressure builds back into the region for more seasonal temperatures and sunny skies through Tuesday. The warmer air will bring highs in the low 80s on Saturday, upper 80s on Sunday and middle 80s on Monday. Computer forecast models show that the pattern that has dominated weather this summer will not change for the next 10 days to two weeks. Higher air pressure remains anchored over the North Pacific, allowing low pressure areas to form as intrusions on the downside, or southward portion of the upper air flow moving clockwise around the high. Those lows will link up with cooler air from the north as they move southward. but unlike the last few storms, the models show that the flow will not make a connection to moist air from the south. As a result, conditions should remain relatively cool for and dry over the next two weeks with periods of warmer weather between the low pressure intrusions. Late July and early August are normally the warmest weeks of the year. Thursday’s high of 69 in Spokane was 15 degrees below normal as cooler air from the northwest filled in behind the low that passed over the region during the day. Keeping with this summer’s trend, another low pressure area should turn down the heat to the 70s by Tuesday and Wednesday. The National Weather Service this morning issued a flood advisory for Ferry and Stevens counties after a strong thunderstorm with heavy rain moved through that region about 5 a.m. In Spokane, the temperature at 7 a.m. was 50 at the airport and 53 at Felts Field. Coeur d’Alene was 54, but Deer Park was only 48