KENNEWICK — The Hanford site north of the Tri-Cities was hot enough to tie the all-time Washington heat record Tuesday.
A high of 118 was recorded at the Hanford nuclear reservation meteorology station north of Richland, according to the National Weather Service.
That matches the state record set at Ice Harbor Dam east of Pasco in August 1961.
And while the rest of the Tri-Cities may have felt like it broke the state record, it wasn’t as hot as the forecast and fell 5 degrees short of the state record.
Another spot at Hanford may have actually been a degree hotter than the record.
A reading of 119 was recorded near the Columbia River Tuesday but it was not an official data collection site and won’t be considered for the state record.
In the Tri-Cities, the high was 113 at the airport in Pasco, which was 4 degrees below the prediction for Tuesday. Tuesday had been expected to be the peak of the current heat wave.
It still set a record for June 29, when the previous Tri-Cities high temperature was 107 in 1904.
Both Walla Walla and Hermiston, Ore., had hotter temperatures.
Hermiston had a high of 118, an all-time record for the city. In Walla Walla, the temperature reached 116.
The hottest day in the current heat wave in the Tri-Cities was 115 on Sunday, which set a new record for the community. The high Monday was 114.
