Spokane continues to be in record-chasing mode during this heat wave.
The city set a new all-time high temperature record on Tuesday with 109 degrees.One other record is in danger, six consecutive days with a triple-digit high temperature. Wednesday marked day number four.
On Tuesday it looked like a sure thing that that record would be toppled, but on Wednesday, National Weather Service meteorologist Laurie Nisbet told reporters that it’s still an open question.
“Currently we’re forecasting 98 to 99 for Thursday-through-Saturday. So there is the potential that we still could reach 100 degrees at the airport. I would say for Thursday and Friday the chances of Spokane Airport seeing 100 degrees or more is about 40-50%, as it stands right now. That’s because we’re going to be seeing some potential cloud cover," she said.
That cloud cover would be coming from the south. After several days of intense heat, the Inland Northwest is beginning to see a small adjustment in its weather pattern. Nisbet says the first sign of that is possible thunderstorms in northern Oregon and central Idaho this afternoon and early evening.
“When those thunderstorms decrease tonight, we’ll see a lot of that elevated cloud cover from those thunderstorms move into our region. I would say probably Moses Lake to Republic, eastward. They could see an increase in cloud cover potential tomorrow, which is why we’re going a couple of degrees cooler," she said.
Nisbet says winds will kick up a bit in the Columbia Basin, Palouse and Spokane area on Friday through the weekend.
