Excessive Heat, Wind, and Fire: Hazardous Weather Warning For Yakima
After a warm, yet, pleasant holiday weekend, the heat has been turned up in the Yakima Valley. Temperatures in excess of 100 degrees this week.
And even though temperatures will be substantially dropping by the weekend, with high temps on Saturday and Sunday settling right around 72 degrees in Yakima, high winds and tinder-dry conditions have elevated the concern for fire to a RED FLAG WARNING.
FORECAST FOR YAKIMA THROUGH SATURDAY
Today, the National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory with a high temperature in Yakima to be around 95 degrees. The cooling off begins tonight, with an overnight low of 55 degrees, but the winds continue with gusts of 26 miles per hour.
Those gusty winds will continue to be an issue through Saturday, with gusts at times above 30 miles per hour. Even though temperatures will drop on Friday to a high of 86 and those 70s temps on Saturday and Sunday, the heat and the sustained windy period will result in that concern for fire danger.
RED FLAG WARNING
NOAA describes the Red Flag Warning as:
A dry cold front will move across the region late tonight into Friday. This will increase the westerly winds and deliver low relative humidity values beginning late Friday morning and continuing into the evening. Rapid fire spread with any new or existing fires is possible.
It looks as though things will warm up again by the middle of next week, with the return of more seasonable temperatures, with daytime highs in the 80s by the end of the week.