Cold Nips Spokane’s 103-Year-Old Record Temperature Dips To Chilly 37 Degrees, But Warmer Weather’s Expected Today
The cold Wednesday morning broke a record that had lasted for more than 100 years, but none of the bobbing heads at the Cannon Park pool paid any attention.
They set their own record of more than 300 swimmers, marking the highest attendance of the season, which just started Monday.
“It wasn’t that cold this morning,” said Lori Keller, the pool’s manager of instruction decked out in sandals, a swimsuit and sunglasses. “I thought it was better than yesterday. We still taught lessons, and then the kids’ lips turned blue. When the lips turned blue, we got the kids out.”
The kids weren’t swimming at 3:49 a.m. though, when the temperature dipped to 37 degrees - hardly bone-chilling, but 2 degrees colder than the record set in 1893. The normal low for June 19 is 50 degrees.
The normal high is 76. On Wednesday, the temperature hit 68.
Caleb Egbert was outside at 3:49 a.m. Wednesday, delivering newspapers with his parents on the lower South Hill. The 10-year-old debated wearing gloves but figured they’d interfere with the fast finger motion required on his job. Caleb did wear his sweater.
“Sometimes during the summer, I don’t wear a sweater at all,” he said. “Sometimes, I wear shorts. Once it starts to warm up, I can start to wear shorts. I hope it starts to warm up soon.”
It’s supposed to warm up today, according to the National Weather Service. The high temperature today is expected to be 71, and the temperature should keep creeping higher through the weekend and into next week.
“We’ve got one more system to deal with,” meteorologist Ron Miller said. “But we’re not looking for anything back down into the 30s like we’ve had the past two mornings.”
City Transportation Director Bruce Steele has been dealing with the current cold system for the past two mornings. He’s one of about 20 volunteers working on a study of trip origins and destinations for the Spokane Regional Transportation Council.
They stopped cars along U.S. Highway 2 west of Fairchild Air Force Base from 6 to 9 a.m. Wednesday and asked questions.
“Some of the volunteers hadn’t brought gloves and didn’t have warm clothing,” Steele said. “I saw a couple of ladies really shivering. But we all made it. We all survived.”
, DataTimes