Heat Wave the Sequel

It's Even Warm At Night, But Never This Warm

July 24, 2006

By Scott Sistek

SEATTLE - Erasers sure have been busy with the Seattle record books lately. And they don't even get any time off at night.

The high temperatures have been getting all the glory lately, but did you know Seattle just had the warmest night in their history Sunday night?

The low temperature Monday morning was a balmy 70 degrees. It's the first time the temperature has failed to drop under 70 since records have been kept in Seattle. The previous record for warmest night (or "highest low temperature") was 69 degrees set Sept. 2, 1974.

That record comes on the heels of a string of high temperature records the past few days.

The erasers first got their work in on Friday, when Seattle (97), Olympia (101), Hoquiam (90) and Stampede Pass (93) set record highs. Not to be outdone, Portland (104) and Vancouver, Wash. (104) also topped the charts. And Hillsboro, Oregon (just outside of Portland) tied their all-time record with 108 degrees.

Then, Saturday came along. Time to re-write more records.

Seattle (96), Hoquiam (91), and Stampede Pass (90) once again broke records. Olympia (99) tied theirs.

The record high temperature books sort of caught a break on Sunday. Even though temperatures were once again in the mid-upper 90s, it turned out in 1981, it was even hotter, and most records were near 100.

But! Seattle did tie a record for number of consecutive days at 95 or hotter at three. The last and only time it's happened before was in August of 1977.

Temperatures were on pace Monday morning to perhaps get to 95 again, meaning that record could be broken.

Going back to the "warm nights" theme, several of those daily records were broken this weekend as well.

Seattle (68), Olympia, (71), Hoquiam (60), Forks (58) and Bellingham (64) all set daily records for highest low temperature on Friday night.

Then came Seattle's 70 degree low Monday morning. That gave temperatures a great head start to try and reach the mid 90s once again for Monday afternoon, but cooler weather is promised Tuesday and through the end of the week.

Which is probably a good thing, since our eraser is getting really tired! :)

The Heat Wave, So Far

Just for those still curious, here's how the heat wave has stacked up so far:

Here's the official stats of the three day heat wave extravaganza:

	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Vancouver (WA)	104	94	101
Portland	104	93	101
Shelton	102	101	99
Olympia	101	99	98
Kelso	100	97	99
Bremerton	99	93	95
Bellevue	99	99	95
Seattle	97	96	95
Renton	97	95	93
Tacoma	97	93	93
Gig Harbor	95	91	92
Arlington	93	91	91
Friday Harbor	92	90	89
Port Angeles	91	90	87
Forks	91	86	87
Hoquiam	90	91	80
Everett	90	89	88
Bellingham	88	85	84