Lohmann: Cooler Weather Expected This Weekend, But It Won’t Last

Many would agree that this summer has been a hot one for most of the Pacific Northwest, with several locations reporting record or near record temperatures at different times. Marilyn Lohmann, meteorologist with the National Weather Service said it should come as no surprise that between the extremely hot daytime highs and overnights lows providing very little relief, 2021 seems to be bound for the record books.

“Much of the Inland Northwest is seeing their warmest summers on record.  And the summer season is considered June, July and August, so, we’ll have to wait and see what happens in August, but for right now, we are seeing some of the warmest readings on record and the next warmest summer was 2015.”

Lohmman added the hot temperatures have really done a number on the top soil moisture levels, which for most of the region are short to very short. In addition the calm conditions have allowed smoke to settle in, resulting in Air Quality Alerts for much of the Northwest over the past couple of weeks.

But Lohmann said changes are coming this weekend, with temperatures dropping to 5-15 degrees below normal this weekend. So, will we see showers moving with these cooler temperatures?

“Unfortunately it’s not going to bring in a lot in the way of precipitation.  Some, mainly mountain showers.  The best area for showers will be actually western Washington and the Cascades.  But, just the overall cooler pattern and relative humidity will be up if that does occur.  One drawback with that cooler air flowing through the gaps and the Gorge, we will see some breezy to windy conditions through a lot of the weekend, at times.  And then early next week we do start to warm back up again.”

Lohmann added when looking long-range, a La Niña watch has been issued which means the waters off of South America are expected to continue to cool in the months, which could result in increased precipitation…but not until November.

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