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Spokane officially hit 90 for the first time this year on Tuesday

Jolene Knerr, of Airway Heights, traveled to the Coeur d’Alene Park splash pad in Spokane’s Browne’s Addition to cool off in the hot Tuesday afternoon temperatures, May 30, 2017. “Cold but refreshing. It will shock you,” Knerr said. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)
Jolene Knerr, of Airway Heights, traveled to the Coeur d’Alene Park splash pad in Spokane’s Browne’s Addition to cool off in the hot Tuesday afternoon temperatures, May 30, 2017. “Cold but refreshing. It will shock you,” Knerr said. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)
By Mike Prager mikeprager15@gmail.com(509) 459-5454

Spokane officially hit 90 for the first time this year on Tuesday.

But after four days of summerlike conditions, the Inland Northwest is falling back to a more typical spring pattern.

Highs in the upper 80s and lower 90s will be absent from the forecast for the near future, forecasters said.

“We are going to cool things off by 20 degrees from what we’ve seen,” said forecaster Jon Fox of the National Weather Service in Spokane.

A cold front crossing the region on Tuesday evening is the reason. Highs starting Wednesday will be closer to normal for this time of year – in the lower 70s through Friday.

Last weekend’s warmup is somewhat unusual for late May.

The weather service posted a tweet saying that the last time the temperature reached 90 in May was in 2006.

In 2016, Spokane saw its first high in the 90s on June 4. That was the first of 24 days of temperatures at 90 degrees or hotter last year.

Spokane did not hit 100 even once in 2016.

In 2015, the first high in the 90s was on June 7.

The record high in Spokane for Monday’s and Tuesday’s date was 95 degrees in 1986.

The hottest weather ever in Spokane was 108 degrees, occurring on two days – July 26, 1928 and Aug. 4, 1961.

Pappy Boyington Field in Coeur d’Alene reported a high of 88 on Tuesday.

The weather change expected to blow into Eastern Washington and North Idaho overnight won’t be the only storm system this week.

Forecasters are calling for a series of disturbances through the weekend, including a continuing chance of showers or thunderstorms.

A strong gust front crossed the lower Columbia Basin Tuesday afternoon, quickly kicking up winds to 37 mph north of Kennewick.

“The recent dry and warm weather shows no sign of returning,” according to Tuesday’s forecast discussion online.

A deep upper-level low pressure area in the Gulf of Alaska is expected to send a mild southwesterly flow into the region along with unstable conditions for clouds and possible showers and thunderstorms.

Dry, sunny weather with highs in the upper 70s is possible on Saturday before another cold front arrives on Sunday, Fox said.

Temperatures could drop back to the 60s next week, Fox said.

The normal high for this time of year in Spokane is around 70.

The U.S. Climate Prediction Center has not wavered from its outlook for a hotter-than-normal summer through August with lower-than-normal precipitation across the region.

That pattern could well continue through the end of the year, according to the latest weather outlook charts.

Spokane International Airport is used as the city’s official weather reporting station.