Weather Eye: Records broken as hot weather continues across state

Heat will continue to blanket the Pacific Northwest today. But expect it to ease in a couple of days.

Longer-range forecast models, however, indicate a return of highs in the 90s, so stay tuned. At least the Fourth of July will be blessed with fair skies and no rain.

While we are not breaking local high temperature records, they were broken Sunday in Bellingham and Hoquiam. Bellingham had 87 degrees, surpassing the 86-degree record in 1995. Hoquiam had 82 degrees, surpassing the 91-degree day also in 1995. It even reached into the 90s in Seattle. New record warm lows also were broken early Monday morning around the Evergreen State.

At 1 p.m. Monday, Seattle was at 84 degrees, while Vancouver was only at 81 degrees. It’s not too often that heat in Seattle inches ahead of that of our area in a heat wave.

Vancouver’s high was 96 degrees Sunday, our warmest day so far this year. We had another 90-degree high on June 28.

Remember the average high between June 11 and June 14? It was in the 60s. It probably doesn’t make you feel any cooler today, but it was memorable anyway.

We had almost a 50-degree swing between the highest and lowest temperatures in June. On June 1 and 15, it dipped to 47 degrees, followed by a 96-degree day on June 30.

We usually get about 12 to 14 days with highs of 90 degrees or better each summer. We will have most likely five in the next few of days. And we still have the rest of July, August and September to go. See you on the Fourth!

Patrick Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. http://weathersystems.com.