Cool Down Coming For Wenatchee & NCW; Winds, Fire Danger Remain

North Central Washington has cooled off after several weeks of especially hot weather, and it's about to cool down even more. 

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National Weather Service Meteorologist Charlotte Dewey says we'll see lower temperatures and a good bit of wind from a dry cold front coming off the Pacific Ocean. 

"And I say dry cold front because we're not expecting a lot of precipitation, which comes with our cold front passages, "said Dewey. "We're going to see temperatures that are going to cool down a little bit. We're getting some of that relief from those triple digit temperatures. But we're also seeing an influx of wind."  

The Weather Service has fire weather concerns because of the winds and dry weather. 

Conditions are forecast to fall just short of what would trigger a Red Flag Warning in the next several days, specifically sustained winds of 15-20 miles per hour and humidity below 20 percent.  

Dewey says the system coming from the northwest will skirt across the Cascades and bring locally high winds. 

"That's really bringing in that influence of southwest winds and west winds, funneling through the Cascade gaps," Dewey said. "And that's what's going to create those breezy to gusty winds, especially along the slopes of the Cascades. So, the Wenatchee area, the Lake Chelan area, into the Columbia Basin." 

Dewey says there'll be elevated fire weather conditions for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. 

Temperatures will be well below the normal of 89 degrees in Wenatchee on Thursday and Friday after an extended period of unusually hot weather in July. 

The eight-to-14-day outlook from the National Weather Service for July 30 to August 5 shows a 30-40 percent chance of above normal temperatures, and a 30-40 chance of above normal precipitation. Dewey cautioned that the likely precipitation would be a hundredth of an inch, which means there’ll be a greater chance of dry lightning strikes than actual precipitation. She said the upcoming conditions in the eight-to-14-day outlook will likely bring more elevated fire weather conditions.