Storms winding down in the Northwest; Phoenix heading toward 110 again
It's been a pretty active final week of June in the Northwest, where there have been some showers and thunderstorms, including some severe weather.
On Wednesday, the Storm Prediction Center issued a severe thunderstorm watch in portions of Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Much of that area had not been under a watch for over two years.
Luckily, there was not much damage in that watch area.
Thursday, the main area of severe weather migrated eastward into Montana, where there were more reports of severe weather.
A tornado was reported in Wheatland County, while there was a report of tennis ball-sized hail in far eastern Montana.
The large, slow-moving upper low responsible for the rough weather will finally get pulled northeastward into the weekend, which will lead to some quieter weather into the weekend.
An upper-level map from the NAM model valid Friday morning, showing the upper low over Washington and southern British Columbia. This low will finally lift out into the weekend, which will lead to less stormy weather in the Northwest.
Temperatures will also start to come back up closer to average after a notable cool stretch that reached as far south as northern Nevada and the Central Valley of California.
After Sacramento and Fresno were 10-15 degrees below average on Wednesday, temperatures should be up near average by the end of the weekend.
The Northwest will see a similar jump in some areas. After only reaching 65 in Portland on Thursday, temperatures will be up near 80 by the weekend.
A fast-moving disturbance could bring a shower or two to parts of Washington and Oregon over the weekend.
Looking ahead to next week, a cold front dropping down from British Columbia may trigger a couple of showers in Washington around midweek. This does not look to be a big weather maker, though.
Across California, it will pretty much be business as usual along the coast. In the Desert Southwest, Phoenix will be flirting with 110 degrees through the weekend, as the core of the large ridge in the Plains retrogrades back to the west a bit.
Forecast high temperatures from the GFS for Monday, the first day of July.
Phoenix has only reached 110 degrees once this year, back on June 12. There will be the potential to reach 110 degrees each day through Monday before the ridge collapses.
Luckily, things have been pretty quiet on the wildfire front of late in the West, although there are a couple of exceptions.
The Woodbury Fire is now the fifth-largest fire on record in Arizona, having burned nearly 125,000 acres. The fire is 68 percent contained as of late Thursday night.
There will be gusty winds in the area Friday and Saturday to go along with very dry conditions. The relative humidity dropped down to around 4 or 5 percent during the afternoon hours on Thursday in Phoenix, which is just west of the fire.
In New Mexico, the Pine Lodge Fire has burned over 12,000 acres in the Capitan Mountains. That fire is only 11 percent contained as of Thursday.
Just like in Arizona, firefighters will have to contend with gusty winds in the area through Saturday, which may complicate containment efforts. The wind should not be quite as strong by next week.
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