In stuffy apartments, on sleeping bags and mattresses hauled to basements, at pools and spray parks, and in grim trips to the store to see if just one fan remained on the shelf, Seattle made it through Monday’s scorching heat with the knowledge that Tuesday will be warmer still.
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport hit 95 degrees Monday afternoon, the National Weather Service said, tying a record for July 8 set in 2010. Olympia reached 99 degrees, eclipsing its record of 95.
The overnight temperatures in this heat wave will continue to be warmer than usual, too, with lows in the mid-60s around Seattle, said Weather Service meteorologist Jacob DeFlitch. That’s a challenge for many homes that lack air conditioning and depend on cool overnight weather to bring indoor temperatures down.
On Tuesday, Seattle’s high is expected to reach 96 — hot enough that remote workers might just come in for the office air conditioning.
A heat advisory for much of Western Washington, including King, Snohomish, Pierce, and Kitsap counties, continues through Wednesday.
Starting Wednesday, “we’ll start to cool down, but will stay well above normal temperatures through next weekend,” DeFlitch said. The Weather Service forecasts high temperatures in Seattle of 88 degrees Wednesday and 83 degrees Thursday.
More than 146 million people around the U.S. were under heat alerts Monday, mostly in western states. The Multnomah County, Ore., medical examiner is investigating four suspected heat-related deaths recorded Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The ongoing hot, dry weather elevates fire risk in the Cascades and around the Puget Sound region, DeFlitch said.
“There are also concerns for later in the summer,” DeFlitch said. “We’ll see if we have storms that bring rain, but certainly it’s still drying things out at a quick rate at the moment.”
Puget Sound Energy asked customers to reduce their energy use Monday afternoon and evening to minimize strain on the electrical grid.
“Our system is designed and maintained to provide reliable service during peak times of use,” spokesperson Gerald Tracy said. “We’re not concerned at this time and the grid is performing well.”
Tracy likens these high-demand times, which the agency calls “flex events,” to rush hour on a highway. When more people are home in late afternoon and early evening, cooking, doing laundry and running their air conditioning, it can create a traffic jam. The agency encourages customers to delay using large appliances, and to turn off lights or unplug electronics.
Mercer Island issued a plea Monday night for its residents and businesses to immediately conserve water, asking, among other things, that they hold off on doing laundry for the next two days and minimize how much water they use for showers, plants and yards. They also asked people to stop running sprinklers.
If use is not adequately reduced in the next day, mandatory restrictions could begin, officials announced.
Monday afternoon’s hot temperatures didn’t stop Eli Pruzan, 21, and a group of friends from hitting the baseball field to take batting practice at Magnuson Park.
“We made this plan last night to play baseball at the park, and I wasn’t really paying attention to the weather until I got there,” said Pruzan, home from Vanderbilt University for the summer. “When we got there, we were like ‘Yeah, it’s really hot,’ but we just wanted to tough it out for a little while.”
After an hour and a half of baseball, they cooled down with refreshments from 7-Eleven, he said. Tomorrow’s plans: “Something in a shady area.”
