Though June ended in a storm, July will be hot and dry, weather service forecasts

Weather-wise, June went out with a bang.

Though Sunday’s deluge drenched Downtown Spokane on the second day of Hoopfest and then dazzled with a double rainbow over the region, June was much drier than historic averages. July will remain seasonably dry and hot, the National Weather Service predicts.

A total of .58 inches of rain fell at the Spokane airport, half the monthly average of 1.17 inches at that measuring site.

There was significant variance in rainfall between sites; the weather service’s office located north of Airway Heights measured 0.96 inches over the month, compared to the 1.42 inches average.

Meanwhile, Felts Field stood out with a wet June, clocking in .12 inches above average at 1.60 inches this June.

Sunday’s thunderstorm dumped around half an inch of that figure.

“It just had to do with the track of the thunderstorms that developed,” said Jeremy Wolf, meteorologist with the weather service. “Areas that were underneath the rain cores associated with the thunderstorm received higher amounts than areas that were more brushed by the storm.”

Along with the rain, the storm brought thunder, lighting and high winds to the region.

The weather service recorded around 650 lightning strikes in northeast Washington, representing the counties of Spokane, Pend Oreille, Stevens, Ferry and Lincoln. The area between Colville and Spokane saw the biggest concentration of strikes.

Wind gusts of up to 41 mph swept the airport’s measurement site.

The weather service received two reports of outages due to trees falling on power lines in Five Mile and Millwood, the former leaving 700 people temporarily without power and the latter affecting a handful of households.

Though it was a dramatic conclusion to June, July is forecast to be a “transition out of the weather pattern we’ve been in,” Wolf said.

For Thursday’s Independence Day, the weather service forecasts sunny skies and high temperatures in the upper 80s. The balmy weather will persist into the weekend; the service forecast a high of 95 Saturday and 96 Sunday.

“The hottest it’s been this season so far,” Wolf said.