Record dry spell finally breaks

With showers forecast for Sunday evening, Spokane’s long, arid summer appears finally to have drawn to a close.

For the past 80 days, no measurable rainfall has has been seen in the city or surrounding region, according to the National Weather Service. That’s longer by a full week than the past record, set a century ago in 1917.

But the dry spell may be even more dramatic than the record indicates. Since May 20 – over the past four months – Spokane has seen a total of only 1.1 inches of rainfall, wrote KHQ weathercaster Ryan Overton in an email.

The coming week could nearly double that, he wrote.

Models are suggesting anywhere between 1 and 1.7 inches by Thursday morning, he continued.

“That’s 120 days, and we could hit that this week in the next six days,” Overton said.

That would make the week a kind of microcosm of the year as a whole, where records have been set for both rain and rainlessness in turn. Spokane blew through one rainfall average after another this spring, prompting flood warnings and raising a bumper crop of vegetation.

That vegetation, desiccated by the following dry spell, is now fueling the record wildfire smoke that plagued the city for weeks this summer.

As the season turns, both in time and temperature, toward fall, more seasonal conditions appear on the horizon. Highs in the 60s Monday will taper into the lower 50s over the course of the week, said Joey Clevenger, meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Spokane office.

Rain could fall in showers throughout the week, with stronger rainfall anticipated Tuesday and Wednesday. That, coupled with the cooler temperatures, may help to dampen some of the fires in the region, continuing the trajectory toward cleaner, clearer air.