Tri-City August may be a bit hotter than usual

August temperatures may be close to normal or a little warmer than usual in the Tri-Cities, the National Weather Service predicts.

Normal highs in August are 89.3 degrees and normal lows are 60.8 degrees.

July was only slightly warmer than usual in the Tri-Cities, providing some relief in a year that saw a warm spring with multiple records broken for daily highs.

In the Tri-Cities, the average temperature in July was 76.2 degrees, which was just 0.2 degree above normal. The average high of 88.9 degrees was 1.4 degrees below normal and, as measured in Kennewick, highs hit at least 100 on only two days.

At the Hanford Meteorological Station, July averaged a little cooler than usual, making it one of just three months in the past 29 that were not warmer than usual.

The average temperature was 76.7 degrees, which was 0.4 degree below normal, according to the Hanford station.

On five days, the temperature at Hanford was 100 degrees or more, compared with a normal of seven for the month. Usually, 20 July days have highs of at least 90 degrees. This year there were only 12 days.

However, for the year to date through July, 10 days have been in the triple digits compared with a normal of eight.

No daily temperature records were set in July, according to the Hanford Meteorological Station. But it was the second windiest July at Hanford — second only to July 1983 — since records began being kept at Hanford.

The average wind speed was 10.3 mph, which was 1.7 mph above normal. The peak gust recorded at the Hanford station was 43 mph on July 4.

In Kennewick, the peak wind gust in July was 37 mph on July 7.

The station also tracks visibility and noted that smoke reduced visibility to three miles on the last day of the July as a wildfire spread from Yakima County toward Hanford.

August could be a little drier than usual in the Tri-Cities, according to the National Weather Service. Normal precipitation is 0.18 inch.

July was slightly wetter than usual, helping keep the precipitation for the year above normal.

In the Tri-Cities, 0.32 inches of rain fell, with measurable rainfall on three days. It was 0.1 inch above normal. Precipitation for the year has come to 5.54 inches, which is 1.02 inches above normal.

Precipitation also is above normal for the water year, which starts in October. About 8.32 inches has been measured and normal is 7.25 inches.

At Hanford, precipitation in July measured 0.27 inch, which was 150 percent of normal. Precipitation is close to normal for the year.

This story was originally published August 5, 2016 at 7:27 PM with the headline "Tri-City August may be a bit hotter than usual."