We interrupt our regularly-scheduled summer weather for some active weather! Thunderstorms are in the forecast, but unfortunately not a lot of rain...
Tomorrow (Wednesday) will be another warm one, with afternoon high temps in the mid-80s. Skies should stay fairly clear, giving us another pleasant day! Overnight into Thursday, things start to change...chances for thunderstorms ramp up early Thursday morning through Thursday evening. Right now, the computer models are not showing much rain for the Plateau, and we might not even get as much of the lightning show as the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas do - but it's going to end up being of those "wait and see" type of situations. One thing we do know, it'll be on the cooler side - afternoon temps only in the low- to mid-70s! Back to our regular programming on Friday, with plenty of sun and warm temps into the weekend.
As for wildfire smoke - you may have noticed a slight haze in the sky, and some extra color in the sunsets the past couple days...there has been some smoke high up in the atmosphere from several fires around the PNW. Looking at air quality readings around King County, it appears some of it is starting to mix down to the surface. Additional smoke from a fire in southern Oregon will make it up to our area during the day tomorrow (Wednesday), which could affect air quality as well. On the plus side, Thursday's system should help scour out at least some of the smoke...bad news, the lightning and not much rain could potentially start many new fires across the region.
I'll post more updates over the next couple days!