SPOKANE, Wash. — Tuesday, June 29 was a record setting day in Spokane and across the entire Inland Northwest. Several all-time record highs were broken. Spokane hit 109 degrees, which broke a 60-year old record to mark the hottest temperature ever recorded since records began in 1881.
While that seems to have be the hottest day of this historic heat wave, it's going to take some time to drop temperatures back to more comfortable levels. Temperatures in the 90s are in the forecast through Independence Day this Sunday, but considering the average high is 80 degrees, we'll still be well above average.
The extreme and historic levels of heat was caused by a "heat dome" which was directly over the Pacific Northwest since this past weekend. It's an intense area of high pressure in the atmosphere where the heat physically expands the atmosphere into a dome shape, which results in a weather pattern that can often get stuck in place.
Thankfully, the high pressure center had enough eastward momentum that the jet stream is going to push the heat dome towards the Great Lakes before getting pinched off finally.
On Thursday, Spokane was no longer directly underneath the heat dome and thus temperatures fell away from all-time record highs. By July 4, the forecast is 95 degrees.
Temperatures in the 90s are definitely better than 100s and 110s. But every long-term outlook for the Inland Northwest remains above average temperature wise. The 7-day, 10-day, 14-day, month, and three-month outlooks are all above average. This indicates that this is going to be a hot summer in 2021 if June was any indication.
