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High clouds keep Seattle from 90 this afternoon

  • High clouds might keep Seattle from 90 this afternoon
  • Slight chance of mountain storm and lowland rain shower or sprinkles tonight and early Friday
  • Milder Friday and for several days after before warming temperatures later next week

SEATTLE — While it’s well into the 90s in Olympia and Chehalis at mid-afternoon, more abundant cloud cover thrown off from a weather disturbance down in Oregon has kept the temperatures for Seattle and Tacoma more or less steady the last few hours in the low to middle 80s. There’s still time for Seattle to get to 90 degrees for that record-tying 12th day of 90 this year, but it’s looking like it might be a tough task based on radar and satellite imagery with more clouds inbound.

So we might have to wait until next week to meet or beat that record. We’ll know in a few hours.

Into tonight, as the ridge of high pressure responsible for the warm weather moves east, we’ll be watching for any showers or high-based convection that is rain-free in the mountains but could trigger a lightning strike. In the lowlands around Puget Sound, there’s the chance for a few sprinkles tonight and into Friday morning but significant rainfall isn’t expected. Morning temperatures will be in the 50s to around 60.

Friday will feature more clouds but some sun and milder temperatures in the low 80s for Seattle – still about five degrees warmer than normal for this time of year.

The weekend will be rather uneventful with morning clouds turning to afternoon sunshine and highs around 80 for the Seattle area, and this will continue into early next week.

There continue to be signs down the road for another warm-up and possibly another run to 90 degrees on at least one or two days late next week, but stay tuned for further details.