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Today is going to be REALLY hot. Like, mid-upper 90s throughout Western Washington hot. Places exposed to warm easterly downslope flow and isolated from the water could even soar into the triple digits today, and I’d be surprised if anybody in Willamette Valley stayed in the double digits today.
First, let’s go over some of yesterday’s maximum highs around the region. Credit to Chris Callais for compiling most of this information.
Yesterday was very warm in Seattle, with our high of 87 just missing our record of 88 set back in 1991. But once you got west of Puget Sound, temperatures skyrocketed into the mid 90s, even at coastal locations. Quillayute hit 96, Port Angeles and Sequium hit 94, and Forks hit 93. While the 90s are rare but not unheard of for Quillayute and Forks (downslope easterly flow off the Olympics helps to warm them up), it is extremely rare to be in the mid 90s along the strait at Sequim and Port Angeles. In fact, Port Angeles only averages one 90+ degree day every five years. The all-time record at Port Angeles is 94, so we tied that record yesterday. We’ll see if we beat it today!
Today should be one of the all-time warmest days for Seattle. We only dropped down to 69 overnight, breaking our previous record for “warmest August night” of 68. Moreover, 69 is tied for the 2nd highest minimum temperature ever recorded at Seattle. The highest was when we hit 71 degrees to go with our record-breaking high temperature of 103 degrees on July 29, 2009. At 11:55 am, Sea-Tac is already at 85 degrees. Yesterday’s high was set at 5:42 pm, so we have a LOT of time to go before we stop warming up. While I don’t think Seattle will hit the triple digits, we should definitely hit the upper 90s.
All of Western Washington currently has a “red flag warning,” meaning that fire danger is exceptionally high due to hot, dry conditions and blustery easterly winds. Please be extremely careful with fire today and the weekend… it only takes one careless mistake to set hundreds of thousands of acres ablaze.
Gotta go now… I’ll have an evening update when I have another break from work.
Charlie
