By Linda Weiford, WSU News
PULLMAN, Wash. – A rare, early-April warmup will bring Washington state its first dose of summer, with temperatures surging into the upper 70s and low 80s in the region east of the Cascade Range.
If you’re suffering from a vitamin D deficiency on the heels of winter, tomorrow and Friday are days you will want to get outdoors and soak up the sun. The state will experience a miniature heat wave, with temperatures expected to run up to 25 degrees above normal, said meteorologist Nic Loyd of Washington State University’s AgWeatherNet.
“Birds are singing and flowers are blooming – we expect that in April. But highs in the low 80s? In some locations, it may well be one for the record books,” he said. Warm temperatures will peak Thursday in the western part of the state and Friday in the eastern half, he explained.
Cities such as Yakima, Walla Walla, the Tri-Cities and Wenatchee should all surpass 80 degrees, while Lewiston, Idaho is predicted to top 86 degrees – breaking its 1952 record for that date of 79. If Wenatchee and the Tri-Cities hit their forecasted high of 83 degrees, they will break records as well.
Pullman is expected to reach 75 tomorrow and 79 on Friday. The normal high for those dates is 55.
The brief temperature spike is due to a warm, high pressure ridge over Washington that’s expected to weaken on Saturday, said Loyd.
“Though the heat will be short-lived and the weather this weekend will cool off into the 60s, temperatures will still remain above normal for this time of year,” he said.
Contacts:
Nic Loyd, WSU meteorologist, 509-786-9357, nicholas.loyd@wsu.edu
Linda Weiford, WSU News, 509-335-7209, linda.weiford@wsu.edu
