The heat is on
The splash pad at the Surf ‘n Slide Aquatic Center in Moses Lake is a good place to beat the heat. Temperatures are expected to stay in the mid- to high 90s all week.
A family rides the Lazy River at the Surf ‘n Slide water park Monday afternoon. Temperatures are expected to hit the high 90s and stay there all week.
MOSES LAKE — The sun was shining, the water was splashing, the kids were playing the water – and just to make this summer picture perfect, it was hot. And it's going to stay hot. The second week of summer will feature summer-like temperatures, although it’s expected to cool down by July 4.
While it’s going to be hot, it won’t be quite as hot as this time last year. Temperatures are expected to top out around 97 or 98 degrees, while in 2015 “it was over 100 degrees – easily – on June 27,” said Andy Brown, warning coordinator meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Spokane.
But it’s still going to be hot, with temperatures at 95 or better “all the way through the week,” Brown said. “We’ll get back to the 80s, maybe even cooler, for the Fourth of July weekend.”
It’s a normal summer in central Washington, Brown said. “We’ll have these little hot spells and a break, some cooler weather, and a little wind thrown in there.”
June has been closer to normal temperatures for the month, Brown said. The picture for July is not clear, but the NWS’s climate prediction center is forecasting above average temperatures and drier than normal in July. That’s a “long term trend,” Brown said; it’s difficult to predict temperatures a couple weeks in advance.
But it’s already dry enough that people should take precautions with fire. The grasses and weeds from a wet spring are drying out, and fire danger is elevated. And fire danger increases even more when the wind starts blowing. So far temperature and wind have not combined for the extremely hazardous conditions that produce so-called red flag warnings. “We’re not looking at any of that. Yet,” Brown said. “We’re not there yet, but we’re getting closer” as the weeds, grass and brush dry out.
July 4 means fireworks, and fireworks and dry grass can mean fires. Ephrata city officials have banned aerial fireworks within the city limits, and will be citing people who fire off materials that don’t meet city codes, said city manager Wes Crago.
“Illegal aerial fireworks would include all bottle rockets, missiles, buzz-bombs, mortars, Roman candles and the like,” Crago wrote.
Conditions are already dry enough that people should take precautions whenever they’re outdoors, said Grant County Fire District No. 5 chief Dan Smith in an earlier interview. Summer is grill and campfire season, but it’s also make-sure-the-campfire-is-out season and make-sure-the-barbecue-coals-are-cold season. A recent fire near Quincy started when the campfire wasn’t extinguished completely, he said.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.