Yes, things are about to warm up

We had a taste of summer on Friday and Saturday as temperatures soared into the mid-80s across the region. Cliff reported 85 degrees on Friday with 86 degrees on Saturday. We believe that Coeur d’Alene would have seen its first 90-degree day of the 2020 season on Saturday if the high clouds hadn’t moved in and held the temperature down a bit.

However, as is often the case at this time of the year, conditions change quickly.

A storm system moved into the area and dropped our temperatures about 20 degrees, bringing showers and thunderstorms. Conditions will be dry through at least the middle of the week, but more wet weather is expected through early-to-mid June.

There are indications that we will be moving into a warmer and drier weather pattern later this month and into July. The summer of 2020 also looks drier than normal, but we don’t think it will be quite as dry as the summers of 2017 and 2018. Hopefully, we will see some occasional moisture as we don’t need an extended period of rainless weather to help make for another tough fire season.

The dry summer weather of 2017 and 2018 helped to fuel some of the most disastrous fire seasons across the Far West in recorded history. During the summer of 2017, June’s 2017 precipitation total in Coeur d’Alene was 1.21 inches, below the normal of 1.93 inches. July 2017 was extremely dry as only 0.03 inches of rain fell on the 15th. August 2017 had only 0.07 inches of rain, making it another very dry month in Coeur d’Alene. September was better as 1.44 inches of rain fell, just slightly below the normal of 1.48 inches.

In 2018, it was almost as dry for the June-through-August period in Coeur d’Alene. During that year, only 2.32 inches of rain fell during those three months, 1.76 inches below normal. June was the wettest with 1.67 inches of rain. But, July was extremely dry like 2017 as only 0.04 inches fell. August was a little better with .61 inches. It remained drier than normal in September as a meager 0.37 inches was measured at Cliff’s station.

The summer of 2019 was also drier than normal, very similar to the previous two years in terms of moisture from June through August. In June of 2019, 1.62 inches of rain fell, which was .31 inches below the normal of 1.93 inches. July was a little better than the previous two seasons as .62 inches was measured. August, however, was extremely dry with only .09 inches of rain. September 2019 was also below normal as Cliff reported .63 inches of rain, compared to the normal of 1.48 inches.

The Far West is already seeing record heat. Parts of California’s Central Valley have reported temperatures over 100 degrees last week. Most locations in the southwestern U.S. had high temperatures about 15 degrees above normal. Death Valley, Calif., broke a record last Wednesday with a blistering temperature of 118 degrees.

It won’t be long before we’ll be reporting 90-degree weather. The earliest 90-degree temperature occurred on April 24, 1977 with a high of 92 degrees. The following day, it was 94 degrees.

Despite the recent warm spell, the average high temperature in Coeur d’Alene in late May is in the lower 70s.

In 2017, we had 32 days with highs at or above 90 degrees. The first one we had in 2017 occurred on May 30 with a high of 90. There were only two days in June with readings in the 90s. July and August were hot and dry months. July had 13 days while August reported 15 days with highs at or above the 90-degree mark. Sept. 3, 2017 was the final day with a high temperature in the 90s in Coeur d’Alene.

In 2018, there were 24 days with highs at or above 90. The first one didn’t arrive until July 5 with a high of 92 degrees. The rest of July 2018 was hot as there were 15 days with highs in the 90s. August was also a hot month with nine days with readings at or above 90 degrees. In fact, there were two days with 100-degree highs — Aug. 9 and 10. The hottest day was on the 10th, with a record high of 104.

Last summer was cooler as our first and only 90-degree day in June was on June 13. There were only two days in the 90s last July and only six days in August.

For 2020, Cliff and I believe that we’ll have around 25 days with highs at or above 90 degrees. It’s also possible that we’ll see one or two 100-degree days.

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Contact Randy Mann at randy@longrangeweather.com