Sunday among the five hottest days in Spokane history, but temperatures expected to cool

If reaching a hot temperature was an event in the Olympics, Sunday’s high in Spokane would have almost won a spot on the podium.

It was among the five hottest days in Spokane’s recorded history, according to the National Weather Service. The high of 107 took fourth place, behind 1928 and 1961’s 108-degree days, and ahead of 1934 and 1931, which topped at 106 degrees.

The hottest day on the service’s record is 109 degrees recorded in 2021. Of the top 10 hottest days, five were in the past 20 years.

This month is trending above typical Spokane Julys, the hottest of the three summer months on average. With more than a week left in the month, the average maximum temperature is 94.5 degrees this year, just over 10 degrees above the average normal high of 84.4 degrees, according to the weather service.

It’s also been consistently hotter for longer; Spokane has reached highs above 90 degrees for 17 consecutive days.

The previous longest streak above this threshold was 15 days in 2017.

“We’ve had this really strong ridge building over the region for the past several days that have allowed temperatures to keep getting warmer and warmer,” National Weather Service meteorologist Rachael Fewkes said.

The service forecasts low pressure systems to grace the region Sunday night and Monday, bringing with them dry cold weather that increases fire conditions, meteorologist Joey Clevenger said.

“The one tonight will knock the triple digits into the mid-90s,” Clevenger said. “Then another one is going to drop us down to the mid-80s.”

Thursday is forecast to be much cooler than recent days, with a high near 85 degrees.

“As we get to the middle of the week, we start to see this low-pressure system will move onshore, and that will bring in a lot of cooler air, and we’ll see winds pick up with that,” Fewkes said.

But don’t get used to it. While the long-term outlook can be hazy, Fewkes said, coming weeks appear to be warmer than average.