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PinPoint Alert: Here’s when the heat wave will subside

The Highlights
  • PinPoint Alert
  • Cooler Tomorrow
  • Mtn. T-Storms

SEATTLE — We’re off to another mild start this morning with partly cloudy skies and moderate air quality. It’s our last PinPoint Alert Day for the heat, with some cooler conditions on the way for tomorrow. Today, however, will be hot yet again.

Air quality is in the moderate range in many spots in Western Washington. While hazy skies are the rule, that is typical during a summer heat wave, and only somewhat worsened by smoke from distant wildfires.

Smoke from the Bear Gulch fire in Mason County is causing some worsening air quality in the immediate vicinity, with some other impact to air quality in spots from Tacoma southward. Expect hazy skies and moderate air quality through Tuesday, though some spots will dip to the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” category.

High temperatures will be in the upper 80s for the Seattle area and touching 90 or a little hotter from around Tacoma south. The Heat Advisory for Western Washington will go until 8 p.m. tonight.

There will be a slight increase in humidity and a change to a southerly wind flow aloft. Those changes could bring the chance for a few isolated thunderstorms, mainly in the south Cascades late Tuesday, but a slightly better chance (still fairly low) for Wednesday.

Some of that moisture could move over lowland areas of Western Washington late Wednesday and into early Thursday.

Wednesday is also when we’ll see our highs drop to the low 80s for the Seattle area — an end to the heat wave. However, it stays warmer than normal the rest of the week with highs in the 80s, only dropping to highs in the upper 70s in Seattle this weekend.

The long-range outlook for Labor Day calls for above-normal temperatures (though perhaps no more heat waves) and above-average chance for precipitation, likely more in the form of chances for afternoon and evening mountain showers and storms.

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