SPOKANE, Wash. — The scorching hot summer Spokane has experienced so far is on pace to be the hottest summer on record. We're already ahead of 2015's record-setting season, albeit by a fraction of a degree.
NWS Spokane tweeted on July 14, just before the half-way point in the summer, that Spokane's average temperature has been 73.5 degrees. This is a tenth of a degree higher than 2015's average temperature between the same 43 days so far in meteorological summer, which began June 1.
It bares reminding that average temperature takes into consideration both the highs and the lows each today. If you look at just the high temperature, the average has been 86.7 degrees in Spokane.
There were five days where record highs were set, including the all-time record breaker of 109 degrees on June 29. Additionally, Spokane's all-time warmest low temperature was broken the next morning at 78 degrees.
But it isn't just the records. It's how hot it is consistently! One hot day doesn't always translate to warm seasons, or vice-versa. Check out the graph above, showing Spokane's temperatures over the past 43 days. Of those, 34 days have seen above average temperatures. Eight were below average, and one was average.
Oddly enough, Spokane did not break the record for hottest June on record, even with a reading of 109 on one of the days. 2015's June (71.4°) was a marginal three-tenths of a degree warmer than 2021 (71.1°) over the course of the whole month.
The summer of 2015 is Spokane's record for warmest summer with an average of 72.7 degrees. 2017 is also third place on that list with an average of 71.2 degrees. Again, this year's average temperature so far is 73.5°.
