More heat records could be in store for Spokane as balmy October continues

After one of the hottest summers on record and a near-record warm September, another heat record is on tap this month in Spokane.

Spokane is projected to break the record for the number of 70-degree days in October, which was 17 days in 1944, according to the National Weather Service Spokane. It’s been at least 70 each day this month through Wednesday, or 12 days. The weather service is calling for high temperatures in the low to mid-70s through Wednesday, which would be 19 days of at least 70 degrees in October.

“We’ve had a persistent area of high pressure that’s been over the West,” said Steven Van Horn, meteorologist at the National Weather Service Spokane.

Ridges of high pressure bring warmer temperatures, he said.

The record for the most 70-degree days is also in jeopardy for other cities, including Pullman, Republic and Bonners Ferry. High temperatures have been averaging 10 to 15 degrees above normal in many towns in the area, the weather service wrote on its Twitter account.

Through the first 11 days of the month in Spokane, the average high temperature was 76.6 degrees, or 12.9 degrees above normal.

The temperature could change quickly this month as October has the greatest average change in temperature of any month, Van Horn said. He said the average temperature Oct. 1 in Spokane is 55 and that drops to 41 degrees Oct. 31.

A cold front late next week is expected to bring high temperatures into the 60s and potentially 50s, meaning next week could be the last days this year of 70-degree weather, Van Horn said.

The record high temperature Nov. 1 in Spokane is 70 degrees, which was set in 1903.

Spokane is coming off some of its warmest months in history. It recorded its seventh-hottest “meteorological summer” and hottest August since record-keeping began in 1881, Van Horn said last week.

Van Horn said this year’s meteorological summer, or June 1 to Aug. 31, measured an average temperature of 70.8 degrees, 2.9 degrees above the normal average summer temperature of 67.9.

August’s temperature averaged 76 degrees this year – 5.7 degrees above the month’s normal average temperature.

Last month was the third-warmest September in Spokane history.

Meanwhile, the 90-degree high Sept. 27 was the furthest into the calendar year the temperature reached 90 or higher. Before then, the furthest into the year the temperature reached 90 was Sept. 25, 1952, when it was 93, according to Miranda Cote, meteorologist at the weather service in Spokane.

Cote said last month the 90-degree high Sept. 27 also broke the 1963 record for that day, which was 87 degrees. The normal high temperature on Sept. 27 in Spokane is 69 degrees.

Those warm temperatures could be tapering off as a third straight La Niña winter, which typically brings colder and wetter conditions than normal, could be in store late this fall and winter.