After another 99-degree day breaks another daily record, Spokane airport likely won’t hit triple digits this summer

A late summer heatwave failed – barely – to pull the official temperature of Spokane to 100 degrees for the third straight day.

But on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday the official temperature at Spokane International Airport reached 99 degrees – setting daily records for each.

With cooler weather on the horizon, that means the airport likely won’t reach the triple-digit mark for the first summer since 2019, according to Daniel Butler, meteorologist at the National Weather Service Spokane.

Last year, the airport reached 100 degrees seven times.

Still, the last three days marked the hottest stretch of the summer, Butler said.

Wednesday’s high temperature broke the 1988 daily record of 98 degrees, 20 degrees higher than the normal high at the airport of 78.

“It starts to cool off in September faster than you would think,” Butler said.

Other areas of Spokane eclipsed 100 degrees the past few days. Felts Field topped out at 100 Wednesday, 103 Tuesday and 102 on Labor Day, according to Butler.

Temperatures will return to normal by next week. Butler said highs will drop slightly to the low 90s the next three days, fall to the low 80s Sunday and Monday and dip into the low 70s Tuesday and Wednesday.

Besides the sweltering heat, residents are coping with poor air quality thanks to smoke from wildfires burning in northeast Washington and southern British Columbia, Butler said.

The Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency listed Wednesday’s air quality index at 114, which is unhealthy for sensitive groups. The agency expected the air quality to worsen to the unhealthy for all groups Thursday.

Butler said a 30% chance of showers is forecast Saturday night into Sunday morning, which along with cooler temperatures and higher humidity, could slow wildfire growth. Any rain that does fall would be less than a tenth of an inch.