PROSSER, Wash. — As a historical record-breaking heatwave melts away over the Pacific Northwest and residents breathe a collective sigh of relief, they’ll still want to keep their fans and ice water close by.
Although slightly cooler temperatures and even a bit of rain are predicted over parts of the region this weekend, above average heat is expected to persist for much of the remaining summer, said meteorologist Nic Loyd of Washington State University’s AgWeatherNet.
“The relief we’re getting will be a blip on the radar, not a prolonged weather pattern,” he said. In fact, computer models are suggesting “very warm, dry conditions not only through the summer but the next 12 months,” he explained.
This means that more warm temperatures and more drought conditions are in store for a region already impacted by a critically low snowpack last winter and record-breaking heat so far this summer. It’s hard to know if the state of Washington has ever been hotter or dryer this early in the season, said Loyd, pointing out that Gov. Jay Inslee has declared a statewide drought emergency and parched vegetation is spawning wildfires earlier than usual.
“It’s rare for a bad snow winter to be followed by a hot dry summer of this magnitude,” he said.
In June, the average high temperature was 9.6 degrees above normal–surpassing the record of 7.2 degrees set in June of 1992, said Loyd.
“By far, June 2015 was the month featuring the largest warm departure from normal temperatures on record,” he explained.
June would have represented an “extreme anomaly” during any year, he said, but its proximity to record warm temperatures preceding it has already earned 2015 a place in the history books.
Contacts:
Nic Loyd, WSU AgWeatherNet meteorologist, 509-786-9357, nicholas.loyd@wsu.edu
Gerritt Hoogenboom, WSU AgWeatherNet director, 509-786-9371, gerrit.hoogenboom@wsu.edu