The hottest 10 days, including June 28, since 1895

If you thought that last Sunday's all-time record high of 105 degrees for the month of June was likewise one of the 10 hottest days in Coeur d'Alene's 120 years of weather observations since 1895, you were RIGHT!

But, there were eight blistering afternoons in the record books that were hotter than what we endured on June 28 - the day of Ironman Coeur d'Alene. They include:

1. Our hottest afternoon ever on 8/4/1961 with 109 degrees in town.

2. Close behind was the 108-degree reading observed in Coeur d'Alene on 7/28/1939.

3. Then comes the 107-degree temperature of 8/5/1961, our hottest summer season ever.

4. There's a five-way tie for the fourth hottest afternoon since 1895. It was a torrid 106 degrees on 07/21/1931, 07/24/1959, 07/26/1984, 07/27/1939 and 07/29/1939. Our second hottest summer season was in 1939, at the end of the so-called 'Dust Bowl Days' of the 'Dirty '30s' in the nation's midsection.

Last, but certainly not least, in ninth place in the all-time daily 'heat standings' was a tie between 8/9/1930 and 06/28/2015, each with a scorching 105 degrees, not exactly great racing weather.

The third hottest summer season since 1895 occurred in 1967, the hottest decade overall in the Coeur d'Alene area.

I doubt that this summer of 2015 will top 1961, 1939 or 1967 for extreme heat across North Idaho, but we're off to a sweltering start with June 2015 topping June 1973 by one full degree at 70 degrees (84/56 mean) for the hottest June on record. We had a record 10 'Sholeh Days' at or above 90 degrees in June of 2015.

By the way, the last four weeks of June were the driest ever in Coeur d'Alene with only a 'trace' of precipitation. Ironically, the first two days of this past June were the wettest ever with a whopping 2.12 inches of rain that flooded local basements, again a prime example of our long-standing cycle of WIDE WEATHER 'EXTREMES.'

Spokane only received a scant .07 inches of total precipitation this June, one of its driest months on record. The rest of the Inland Empire was likewise bone dry. No wonder we saw disastrous wildfire this past week in the Wenatchee area of central Washington.

I'm praying that we residents of "Camelot" don't see a major wildfire locally this torrid summer of 2015. Cut the tinder dry brush near your homes and take extra time extinguishing campfires and even barbecues in the backyard.

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

The Fourth of July holiday on Saturday was the 10th straight 'Sholeh Day' with afternoon highs at or above 90 degrees in Coeur d'Alene. It also marked a record 32 days in a row without measurable precipitation in town, the driest such period locally since the inception of daily weather record-keeping 120 years ago in 1895.

Disastrous wildfires continue to rage from wide areas of Alaska southward past California into Mexico. The huge fire in Wenatchee, Wash., I'm afraid, was just the start of a potentially horrible fire season east of the Cascade Mountains to the western slopes of the Rockies.

Both Meteorologist Randy Mann and I put the blame for the current record heat and drought on the strengthening El Nino in the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

This strongest sea-surface temperature event since the historic El Nino of 1997-98 is 'blocking out' normal moisture from the Gulf of Alaska while pushing searing heat northward into the Inland Northwest from drought-parched California and the torrid Desert Southwest.

As I've predicted for many weeks now, the only moisture that we'll probably see in the lowlands of North Idaho and Eastern Washington between now and at least mid September will occur from brief, widely scattered thunderstorms, mostly in the nearby mountains.

My forecast for the next 90 days and beyond still calls for high fire danger levels, hotter than normal temperatures, low relative humidity levels and scant rainfall.

Be very careful with fire. We don't want to be the next Wenatchee!

SPECIAL NOTE

This Friday, July 10, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., I will have a book signing of "Weather and Bible Prophecy" at the Well Read Moose in Riverstone. Copies are currently available at the Well Read Moose, or you can go to www.WeatherProphecy.com.

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