Temperatures approaching records

SEATTLE — We've had plenty of gorgeous sunrise shots across western Washington this morning, as offshore flow has led to much less fog to start the day. There is some patchy fog early this morning over the south Sound and up toward Bellingham, otherwise this Wednesday gets off to a mostly sunny start.

Temperatures this afternoon will peak near 90 degrees around Seattle. The wind will be blowing down off the Cascades for much of the day, at least until mid to late afternoon, and with unseasonably warm temperatures aloft, we'll push to 15-20 degrees above average later today.

A late sea breeze will likely keep Sea-Tac just shy of 90 degrees. Closer to the water, temperatures will stay in the 70s and 80s this afternoon.

The forecast high of 89 degrees today in Olympia and Seattle would both be record breakers; Olympia's record is 88 (2011) and Seattle's is 87 (2009).

The offshore flow will weaken some tomorrow, allowing a breeze off the water to pick up just a bit earlier in the day. This will cap highs in the mid-80s for most areas along the I-5 corridor. Even though tomorrow will be cooler, we'll still flirt with record highs. Thursday's record is 85 set in 1975.

Onshore flow off the water picks up on Friday and an upper level disturbance moving through will provide some more cloud cover with highs in the low 80s. The flow turns offshore, though, for one more day Saturday. This will bump us back into the mid-80s to start the weekend.

We've been targeting a pattern change for early next week, but it now looks like that pattern change starts about 12 hours early. This means a chance of storms moves in on Sunday afternoon and that chance will continue through the Seahawks/Niners game at the Clink Sunday night with highs in the mid to upper 70s.

KIRO