It’ll Be As Hot As The Fourth Of July Sunshine, Blue Skies Forecast For Coming Week

The past week of cool, rainy weather should become a soggy memory as summer temperatures heat up the Inland Northwest.

Highs in the 80s are forecast starting Sunday and should continue through the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

“It’s going to warm up,” said Lyle Hammer, forecaster with the National Weather Service in Spokane. “It should be real nice Monday and Tuesday.”

Highs in the upper 80s to near 90 are forecast Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Both the medium-range and long-range computer forecast models from the weather service call for extended summer weather in July.

August and September are also shaping up as relatively dry, warm months. The 90-day outlook calls for normal rainfall and temperatures through the period.

That should be a pleasant change from the wet, cool weather that characterized much of the spring and the first week of summer.

The average high for late June is 81, but the thermometer made it only to 64 on Thursday, and barely nudged 69 on Friday.

More than an inch of rain fell in Spokane in the past week, the first full week of summer. The rainfall was enough to surpass the average for June, and help homeowners with their lawn care.

Skies are expected to dry out today as a new mass of warm air moves in from the west. A weak ridge of high pressure is expected to hold off any storminess, at least until midweek.

An approaching storm in the central Pacific Ocean should arrive on the west coast of North America on Thursday, but forecast models show it tracking into British Columbia.

That may create high-level clouds and breezy conditions in Eastern Washington and North Idaho on Thursday, but only a small chance of showers on the Fourth of July, Hammer said. The temperature should still reach around 80 degrees.

“It looks like it’s just going to brush the northern part of the state,” he said.

The rest of the holiday weekend is expected to be dry with highs near 80.

Hammer’s advice for the Fourth: “Take a jacket and maybe have some place to get out of a shower.”

, DataTimes