Wildfire danger continues in the Southwest as rain chances persist in the Northwest

Right on schedule, wildfires and the threat for them have picked up in recent days, which looks to continue this week.

Climatologically speaking, the Great Basin and Desert Southwest typically see fire season get underway faster than areas to the north and west and that is what has happened so far.

The Sawtooth Fire just east of Phoenix is nearly contained, but has burned around 25,000 acres. There have been a number of other smaller fires across Arizona right now as well.

There were some gusty winds across parts of the West on Monday thanks to an area of high pressure coming ashore and moving into the Great Basin. That high pressure area helped to fuel enough of a pressure gradient (the difference in pressure over an area) to create gusty winds.

This is not a setup we see all that often in June, but we've reached the point in the year where any setup like this produces dangerous conditions for fire growth.

In addition to the fire danger, the offshore flow is pushing hot and dry air into the coastal areas, with highs in the 80s in coastal areas of Southern California even into Tuesday. As things start to normalize as the week goes on, though, temperatures will drift back closer to average.

While the Southwest stays dry for the time being, which is pretty typical June weather, things have been a little more wild in the Northwest. Crater Lake National Park in Oregon set a daily record with 9 inches of snow on Sunday.

There may be a little more snow in some areas heading into the upcoming weekend as another deep trough dives into the Northwest.

Following some rain on Tuesday, the Pacific Northwest will continue to stay fairly unsettled with some spotty showers later in the week in advance of that trough coming in.

The GFS and European both show this big trough diving in Friday and Saturday, which will bring cool and unsettled weather. Highs may struggle to get much past 60 degrees on Saturday in Seattle.

The trough will bring showers from the Northwest down into Northern California both days. Snow levels will likely drop down as low as 5,000 to 6,000 feet for a time, which will bring the potential for some snow again to places like Crater Lake.

The cool, unsettled pattern looks to persist in the Northwest into next week as the general troughiness continues.

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