Heat Warning Extended, Wenatchee Flirting With Record

The Excessive Heat Warning for North Central Washington is now extended from Friday all the way through Saturday at 11pm.

It's become a six-day event, which National Weather Service meteorologist Chad Shafer calls highly unusual.

"It's very, very rare for this part of the country," said Shafer. "I would say, aside from last year and this year, it's happened exceedingly rarely in Central Washington."

The warning originally only included areas near the eastern slopes of the Cascades, such as Wenatchee, but it now covers all of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho.

The Wenatchee area is also flirting with a record. “Wenatchee has hit 100 degrees or higher, both on Monday and Tuesday and we have it forecast through Sunday,” said Shafer. “That would be seven days, and that would tie it for second (longest streak of days at or above 100). And that occurred in 1967 in August.

The longest streak of days in Wenatchee at or above 100 took place in July of 2014.

Areas west of the Cascades, including Seattle and Portland are also under an Excessive Heat Warning, although the temperatures there are not quite as extreme.

Shafer says the current extreme weather is not a sign that the rest of summer will be excessively hot.

"Despite the presence of this heat event, it doesn't say a lot necessarily, about what happens two or three weeks later," Shafer said. "The pattern can change quite a bit. It could end up being near seasonal averages or even below average at times."

The hottest weather in eastern Washington typically occurs right now - during the last week of July into August.