Pleasant Weather Continues Across Washington

FastCast—Thursday, July 27 to Monday, July 31:

July has been relatively calm across the Northwest, with brief showers on Monday bringing July’s first rain. As we wrap up the month, pleasant weather is expected to continue. In the lowlands, expect brief morning clouds turning to afternoon sun most days. Conditions will end up being mostly sunny, with highs in the mid to upper 70s, and isolated locations reaching the low 80s. Low temperatures will remain in the mid 50s. This will be the dominant weather pattern as we end July! Stay tuned for the Seafair weekend forecast in the coming days.

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Continue reading the full blog below!

A nice stretch of pleasant summer weather is ahead for Washington. Let’s take a look at the forecast!

Let’s start with Thursday’s high temperatures, as forecast by the European model.

On Thursday, expect lowland highs in the mid 70s to low 80s, coastal highs in the mid 60s, and Eastern Washington’s highs in the low 80s to low 90s.

A similar pattern is ahead on Friday, also seen in the European model forecast below.

On Friday, again expect lowland highs in the mid 70s to low 80s, coastal highs in the mid 60s, and Eastern Washington’s highs in the mid 80s to mid 90s, a tad warmer than Thursday.

This run of seasonable conditions continues into the weekend, as seen in the European model’s forecast for Saturday.

Expect a slightly warmer day across the state on Saturday. Lowland highs will remain in the mid 70s to low 80s, with a higher potential for 80s around the metro area. Coastal highs will reach the mid 60s again, and Eastern Washington will warm to the upper 80s to upper 90s. 

Overall, this pattern brings seasonable and near-average temperatures to the entire state, a welcome break from heat and major fire weather concerns. However, remember that the one thing missing here is rain…which means that it’s still quite dry and fires can easily spark.

Let’s end by looking at the extended outlook from the NWS Climate Prediction Center (CPC) for the beginning of August, specifically the 3rd to 9th, which includes Seafair Weekend (5th & 6th).

First, the CPC temperature outlook for August 3-9.

The CPC shows a 50-60% probability of above average temperatures across most of Washington, except for the far northwest portions of the coast and the Northwest Interior/islands.

Next, the precipitation outlook for August 3-9.

This is a curious outlook, showing that there is an increased chance of some mountain thunderstorms and storms east of the Cascades into August, with a 33-40% probability of above average precipitation for all of the state except areas from Olympia westward and Seattle northward.

We will end this post with a graphic that will become more familiar as we progress into El Niño and toward winter…the US Drought Monitor map for Washington, released July 20th.

Make note of the drought categories on the right, as they will be important when discussing this map. The website states that 84.3% of the state is under some kind of drought. Note that most of the Cascades from King County northward and the lowlands from Skagit County northward are in “severe drought.” We’ll keep looking at this map in the coming months, as it is helpful to determine the state of drought and overall climate in Washington. Stay tuned!