Southwest Washington’s slow-developing summer will arrive with a vengeance today.
The National Weather Service on Tuesday issued a heat advisory that will be in effect beginning this morning through 10 p.m. Thursday, with temperatures spiking in the mid-90s on both days.
Temperatures are likely to remain warm through the weekend.
Meteorologist Tyree Wilde said this week’s whipsaw weather pattern probably marks a turning point after a stubbornly damp spring and early summer.
“Yesterday, we couldn’t break out of the 60s. We couldn’t hit 70 on the Fourth of July,” Wilde said Tuesday afternoon. “Now, all of a sudden, it’ll be in the 90s.”
A thermal trough migrating north along the coastline will suppress the onshore flow of moist marine air while drawing in hot, dry air from the interior, Wilde said. Marine air will begin to drift inland again by Friday, with high temperatures dropping back to the 80s through the weekend.
“We’ve got a big ridge of high pressure over the Pacific Northwest, so that’s blocking storm systems coming our way,” he said.
