WeatherWatcher: Excessive Heat Warning in effect

 

Sunset somewhere in Shoreline on July 17, 2021
Photo by Carl Dinse

The National Weather Service in Seattle has issued an excessive heat warning in effect until 7pm Saturday. Dangerously hot conditions with temperatures running into the low to mid 90’s Thursday and Friday, and highs still near 90°F on Saturday. The warning covers all of King County; however if you go over the border into Snohomish County the warning expires at 8pm Friday.

This is not a repeat of the end of June, we are not expecting triple digit high temperatures. Most of the heat is expected to stay east and south of downtown Seattle. I’m expecting Shoreline to reach the 90's Thursday and Friday. Saturday highs will cool into the mid to upper 80’s. 

What to expect: As with the previous heat wave, the closer you are to the Puget Sound, the cooler the high temperatures are expected to be. So, in the Shoreline area look for an east to west gradient with highs near the Sound in the mid 80’s to around 90°F Thursday and Friday. Inland from around 8th Ave NW and east to the city limits you can expect to see temperatures top out between the upper 80’s to mid 90's.

For the folks in Lake Forest Park, some of you could see a stray upper 90's high temperature on Thursday and Friday. Low temperatures are expected to bottom out in the low 60’s through this heatwave. This should bring us much better relief in the overnight hours than we had at the end of June.

Over the weekend we have a cooling trend. As I mentioned earlier, we’re expecting Saturday to top out around the mid to upper 80’s and Sunday is dropping down to the 70’s. Rain is back in the forecast as well, with a slight chance of rain Sunday afternoon and more significant chance of rain Monday morning.

For next week, look for clearing Monday evening with lows in the 50’s. Mostly sunny skies Tuesday through Wednesday with high temperatures in the 70’s and possibly low 80's.

How are we doing in August so far? With the Northridge weather station back online (located in the Echo Lake Neighborhood) I can start comparing data again to see where we stand on a 10 year average.

For temperature, we are slightly above average so far by about 1°F, mainly due to a couple of warm days. I'd like to point out, however that our nightly low temperatures have been right at average for this time of year. 

Daily high and low temperatures compared to 10 year average in the Echo Lake Neighborhood

Rain has been near normal for August as well. July recorded a nearly rain-free month of 0.08 inches total, compared to our average of 0.48 inches, so this is a welcome change.

Precipitation for the month of August compared to 10 year average in the Echo Lake Neighborhood.

Average rainfall total for August in Echo Lake is 0.74 inches. Currently we are just about on track at 0.22 inches and typically most of the precipitation in August falls in the second half of the month.

For current weather conditions visit www.shorelineweather.com