Weather: July marks one of area’s hottest, driest on record

July was one of the hottest months across the Inland Northwest. At Spokane International Airport, the average reading was 74.2 degrees, which was 4.4 degrees above normal. The average high temperature was 87.1 degrees. There were 13 days with readings at or above 90 degrees; the hottest day was the last day of the month with a scorching 100 degrees.

July was also very dry, with only 0.19 inches of rain falling compared to a normal of 0.64 inches. August is starting out dry and the long-range computer models are showing a strong high pressure ridge locking in over the western U.S. until at least the middle of the month.

We continue to hear about El Nino and its warmer-than-normal sea-surface temperatures in the south-central Pacific Ocean. Since the spring, this phenomenon has expanded at a regular pace and it’s possible that it will be a strong El Nino soon, perhaps surpassing even the the big El Nino in 1997-98 that brought record-breaking rain to California and record drought to Texas and Oklahoma.

Based on the current forecasts, California may see flooding rains this winter, a pattern similar to one recently in Oklahoma and Texas when big floods ended a decadelong drought in a matter of weeks. If this happens, then we’ll probably be hearing about dangerous mudslides as a result of the heavy rainfall.

Based on historical data, our region usually receives near-normal precipitation during a strong El Nino event. However, due to the abundance of warm water off the West Coast and down to the Equator, the chances for normal snowfall are low while the possibility for an ice storm in our area is higher. The big ice storm in December 1996 was part of that El Nino event. I should also mention that heavy snowfalls were reported during that month as well. In other words, despite the predicted low snowfall forecasts, anything is possible during this cycle of wild weather extremes.