More heat to bake the Pacific Northwest

SEATTLE - Today will be our 20th day so far this year of temps 80 or above around Puget Sound. And this afternoon temps ramp up to the mid-80s today and tomorrow in parts of Western Washington. East of the Cascades summer really sizzles with another day of temps in the low 100s. This will drive up wildfire dangers as already tinder dry conditions worsen with some winds that will pick up later today.

Tomorrow we'll see another day of temps 85-90 around Puget Sound, but if the weather stysem toff shore ends up close enough-- it could spin in some atmospheric instability and spark some thunderstorms over the foothills, Cascades, and Central/Eastern WA. This time of year, these storms contain a lot of lightning but not enough beneficial rain. The result can be dozens of rapidly growing wildfires. 

Some more on-shore flow looks likely as we get into the weekend so we'll see temps cool a bit down to the upper 70s in Western WA. An actual cold front dropping through on Sunday with some more cloud cover. The question mark in the forecast is how much the front will hold together to deliver any meaningful precipitation beyond just some pockets of drizzle on Monday. Right now a bit too soon to tell, but August is one of our driest and smokiest months of the year. So history tells us, not much for rain relief. 

Speaking of history, you definitely remember today in Seattle weather history if you lived here in 2009. It was the day that Seattle and much of Puget Sound experienced the muggy awfulness of the hottest day ever recorded in the Seattle area. It reached a whopping 103 degrees on this day 11 years ago. It's the only day Seattle ever reached over 100 degrees in records that go back to 1894. One other day in 1994 peaked at 100 degrees.