The summers of 1939, 1961 and 1967 were the hottest ever in Coeur d'Alene

We saw the longest early May warm spell across North Idaho since the same period in 1949 this May 5-12, a full week of 80 degree plus temperatures in Coeur d'Alene.

This prompted several Press subscribers to ask me to list the hottest summer seasons since 1895 in our part of the country, including the surrounding Inland Empire.

The warmest summer during the past 118 years since the inception of local weather record-keeping in 1895 occurred 45 years ago in 1967. I remember it well. All-time record heat and parching drought that summer baked virtually the entire Far West for weeks on end. There were dozens of wildfires in 9 western states.

The average daily maximum reading that blistering summer was an incredible 9 degrees above normal at 90.8 degrees between June 21 and Sept. 23, 1967 in Coeur d'Alene.

There were 16 afternoons in 1967 with scorching temperatures at or above 100 degrees in town. There were 45 days with 'Sholeh' readings of 90 degrees or higher. By comparison, Randy and I are forecasting just 2 or 3 afternoons this upcoming summer season near or above 100 degrees in the Coeur d'Alene region. We should see about 25 to 30 days in the 90s in 2011. The 117-year normal is one afternoon near the century mark and 21 days in the 90s between June 21 and Sept. 23.

The second hottest summer season on record took place in 1961. That sweltering three-month span saw 15 afternoons in Coeur d'Alene at or above 100 degrees. There were a total of 43 days at or above the 90 degree 'Sholeh' mark, pretty warm indeed.

The most intense summer heatwave on record since 1895 occurred from Aug. 2-5 in 1961. On Aug. 4, 1961, the mercury peaked in town at an all-time record egg-frying 109 degrees. It was 112 degrees in the Spokane Valley.

In third place in the all-time hottest summer ever standings in Coeur d'Alene is 1939, three years before this climatologist's birth in 1942, likewise a very hot summer.

There were a dozen afternoons during that pre-World War II summer with triple-digit temperatures. An additional 25 afternoons that season reached 90 degrees or above in town.

Our hottest July day on record in Coeur d'Alene was a toasty 108 degrees on July 28, 1939, just a degree cooler than the all-time high of 109 degrees on Aug. 4, 1961, as mentioned previously.

One farm northwest of Coeur d'Alene reported an unofficial maximum reading of 114 degrees that same oven-like afternoon. It was 120 degrees on July 28, 1939, at Walla Walla, Wash.!

Believe it or not, in the past two decades of supposed 'global warming,' we haven't seen a single summer season hot enough to be listed in the 'top ten' in the all-time heat parade. Most summers, in fact, have been cooler than normal. For example, the summer of 1991, following the volcanic eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines, didn't even see one day above 89 degrees during the entire season.

Our hottest summer since 1990 occurred in 2006, which ended up in 16th place in the heat standings since 1895. That torrid summer had 38 'Sholeh Days,' well above the 23-day norm. There were four straight days of 100-degree plus heat from July 21-24, 2006, peaking at 104 degrees on July 23.

Will this summer finally crack the 'top ten' for local extreme heat? Despite the unusually warm early May, we still have a rather chilly 'La Nada' sea-surface temperature event in the waters of the Pacific Ocean that soon may become a new cool and moist 'La Nina,' which would likely result in a colder and snowier winter of 2013-14 in the Inland Empire. More details later.

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

Our seven days-in-a-row with afternoon highs in the summerlike 80s was the warmest such early May period since at least 1949.

This warm spell ended on Monday as nearly a half inch of rain drenched the area. Temperatures plunged more than 20 degrees to a high of just 62 degrees on May 14 and a low of 38 degrees on the morning of May 15. Some outlying areas reported light frosts. That's why we cover sensitive plants even this late in the season.

Our heatwave pushed eastward into the nation's midsection on May 14-15. Tuesday's high of 106 degrees at Sioux City, Iowa, was the warmest reading there ever observed this early in the season. Spencer, Iowa, and Norfolk, Neb., each logged scorching 103 degree readings Tuesday afternoon, both new May 14 records for extreme heat.

This record early May heatwave is a blistering 'harbinger' of crop-stressing hot and dry weather conditions that I see developing later in June, July and August in the nation's heartland as the huge western drought eventually slides to the east past the Mississippi River all the way to the Appalachian Mountains.

We will likewise be hotter and drier than normal in our part of the country during the 90-day period from June 15 through Sept. 13. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a couple of afternoons this July or early August near triple digit levels in Coeur d'Alene.

In the meantime, we should see a pattern of 'sun and showers' persisting for the next three to four weeks. The first two weeks of this May set a record for the number of hours with sunshine locally in town at an incredible 141 hours, averaging 10 hours of sunshine per day. That was more sunshine than we saw all of last May.

Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. Email sfharris@roadrunner.com