WeatherWatcher: Mild, short heat wave

Sunny skies in Shoreline, Washington
Photo by Carl Dinse

Warm weather is returning for Tuesday and Wednesday this week. There has been a lot of reporting about it being really hot, but most of the forecast models for the last day or two have backed off for those of us who spend our time north of downtown Seattle.

In general, most forecast models are pointing to high temperatures in the low 80's on Tuesday and Wednesday. We have a marine air push arriving Wednesday evening that will cool us back down into the 70's for the rest of the week and through the weekend.

The source of our warm air on Tuesday and Wednesday? The easterly and northerly winds will be picking up, bringing warm air over the mountain ranges from the interior of British Columbia and Eastern Washington. Tuesday is expected to be particularly breezy with north winds gusting up to 25mph, maybe even 35mph in some spots.

I took screenshots of the UW WRF (University of Washington Weather Research and Forecasting) GFS models of Western Washington for Tuesday and Wednesday at 5pm.

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Temperatures in this model are in degrees C, and the shade of color on both days falls in the range of 24°C - 25.5°C, if I'm reading that right, so between 75°F and 78°F for our area. A slightly warmer spot along the Puget Sound coast for Shoreline of up to 27°C or 81°F.

Bottom line: With the changes and disagreement in forecast models the past few days I think we could see it go either way, staying in the upper 70's or possibly reaching the mid 80's until Thursday. Most likely I think we'll see around 84°F Tuesday, and 80-82°F Wednesday. I will keep an eye on the difference between Northridge and Richmond Beach weather stations to see if that little heat bubble develops near the Puget Sound coastline on Wednesday.

If you want really warm weather, I hear Portland will reach the upper 90's for the next two days.

For current weather conditions visit www.shorelineweather.com