Wild Temperature Ride Ahead for Washington and Oregon

Summer is just getting started, but temperatures in Washington and Oregon are going on a wild ride this week. While this week has started out plenty hot enough, it's definitely going to be up and down throughout the week.

I check a lot of things regularly to see what is happening with the weather and ran across something today that I hadn't seen before. The National Weather Service has a new experimental HeatRisk map that shows areas of the country where heat-related impacts are possible. You can see that eastern portions of Washington and Oregon are shown in orange and red for Tuesday, July 8, meaning that people need to be sure to have ways to cool off and keep hydrated. The yellow areas indicate where temperatures will likely only cause an issue for those extremely sensitive to heat.

The Weather Prediction Center portion of the National Weather Service shows that actual high temperatures predicted for Tuesday are well above normal, with highs over 100 degrees expected for central and eastern Washington and Oregon, as well as some areas of Idaho. The red shown below shows where high temperatures will be up to 12 degrees above the average temperature for that date.

Wednesday and Thursday will provide a nice break from the above normal temperatures as highs will actually be below normal as a cold front sweeps through bringing much cooler air down from the north. The green shown below indicates high temperatures which will be up to 10 degrees below the average high of that date.

The temporary cooldown won't last long as high temperatures will rise back up to above average by Friday, though it won't be quite as hot as early in the week. The summer heat looks to continue through the rest of the season. The Climate Prediction Center's seasonal outlook shows that above normal temperatures are predicted all the way through September.