WASHINGTON — Happy Friday!
It is going to be a very warm to hot stretch of weather for Western Washington starting on Friday and lasting well into next week.
Friday through Monday night are Pinpoint Alert Days with uncomfortable to potentially dangerous heat on the way.
High pressure aloft combined with wind flow nearer the surface will serve to largely shut off cooling from the Pacific for days, starting on Friday.
A Heat Advisory is in effect for the lowlands through this period, with an Extreme Heat Warning for the Cascade foothills and adjacent valleys.
High temperatures on Friday will be in the mid-to-upper 80s in the central Sound, with some spots near the Cascades hitting 90, and from Olympia south along I-5, we’ll be in the low 90s. Olympia’s daily record high on Friday is 90 degrees, and the current forecast there is for 91.
It’s forecast to be even hotter on Saturday, with mid-90s south of Puget Sound and in the Cascade valleys and foothills. For Seattle, the forecast is for 90 degrees — not quite to the daily record of 91, but Olympia will set another record high with about 95 on Saturday. Across the north and coast, it will still be well into the 80s.
Sunday is just about as hot area-wide, with plenty of 80s, and south of Seattle and near the Cascades, we’ll be in the 90s.
East of the Cascades, we’ll see weekend highs in the upper 90s to low 100s.
Starting Monday, we’ll lose a degree or two each day through about Thursday, but that still puts much of Western Washington’s lowlands well into the 80s. In addition, with each successive hot day, overnight cooling won’t be enough to temper the discomfort for those without air conditioning.
There looks to be more relief from the heat by the end of next week, though temperatures will likely still be a bit warmer than average.
Fire danger will ramp up over the weekend and into next week, and a Fire Weather Watch has been issued for the Cascades, Olympics, and adjacent foothills from Saturday through Sunday. This will likely become a Red Flag Warning later on Friday.
As for air quality, there is very little smoke emanating from the Bear Gulch Fire at present, and air quality is good region-wide. We could see more smoke produced from this fire as we go through the next few days.
Also, smoke could be a problem from any other fires that start, as the rains of nearly a week ago will no longer be of any help in the coming days, as the ground is parched once again. We may get some elevated haze to push into the area tomorrow, thanks to the offshore wind pattern. Air quality is still mostly projected to be good.
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