SEATTLE — The National Weather Service issued a Heat Advisory for Thursday and Friday across Western Washington.
It remains in effect from 8 a.m. Thursday to 11 p.m. Friday.
The warm temperatures begin on Wednesday, and are likely to peak on Thursday, when we could be close to record highs for the date. KIRO 7 Meteorologist Nick Allard’s current Seattle forecast high of 88° is the daily record high from 1973.
Areas north of Seattle near the water will be cooler, while the real heat – and highs breaking 90° – will be in interior parts of Pierce County and south of Puget Sound. While Tacoma will top out in the upper 80s too, Olympia, Shelton, and Centralia will all likely be in the low to mid 90s.
Friday will have highs nearly as warm, though we could fall a degree or two shy of where the mercury gets on Thursday.
Onshore flow off the Pacific will start back up late Friday and provide some relief from the heat in the interior of Western Washington on Saturday and Sunday with highs for the Puget Sound region in the upper 70s to low 80s Saturday and mainly 70s on Sunday.
Given climatology (the time of year) and the long-range weather patterns in the forecast data, this looks to be the last summer-like warm spell of the year. In fact, next week looks cooler than normal.
We could have some mountain thunderstorms on Sunday or Monday afternoon though rain chances for the lowlands probably hold off until later next week.
Fire Danger
The National Weather Service said elevated to critical fire weather conditions are expected for the Cascades and Olympics Thursday into Friday.
There will also be a period of increased east winds over the Cascades, mainly during the morning hours on Thursday and Friday.
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