The Weather 2024: A freakishly hot, wet, record year for Spokane

It’s official: 2024 is the fourth hottest year in Spokane’s recorded history.

Smack in the middle, we experienced a July that was so scorching that it became the city’s hottest month since daily recording began in 1881. Not only that, but the entire summer was unusually hot, as was the month of September.

In addition to heat, we experienced some other major weather events, including a giant wall of dust that raced through the Inland Northwest, a powerful wind storm, and an unusually wet and dreary November and December.

Recent conditions have been so mild and rainy — Santa could barely land his sleigh to deliver presents — that it’s hard to remember the severe cold that gripped the Northwest Interior a year ago in January. That being the case, here’s a look at 2024’s best weather events from the start.

January 2024 was barely underway when an arctic air mass crashed south from Canada, enveloping our region in sub-zero temperatures. On January 11, Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown declared a state of emergency due to chilly conditions caused by cold air and high winds. On January 13, the nighttime temperature dropped to minus-10 degrees, making it the coldest day of 2024. (The average low for January 13 is 22 degrees).

In mid-spring, we enjoyed a flurry of summer-like days, with the first wave of 80 degree weather arriving on May 10th. Then came June, which ran 2 degrees above normal for that month. The heat was just a flicker of what was soon to follow.

With an average high of 92.6 degrees, July was warmer than any other month in Spokane’s recorded history. Every day from 1.-24. July we endured temperatures that ran well above normal – often by more than 10 degrees. On July 21, the mercury soared to 107 degrees, making it the hottest day of 2024 and the fourth-hottest day on record for the city.

By the end of August, prolonged stretches of heat and dryness pushed Spokane to its third warmest summer in recorded history. From June 1-Aug. 31, temperatures ran 4.3 degrees warmer than the long-term summer average. Also, the area received only 1.12 inches of precipitation, which is 1.23 inches less than average.

The main driver behind our intense summer conditions was a series of high pressure systems that anchored over the western United States. Each system trapped warm, dry air against the ground, like a lid on a pan. Then, just as one system would drift eastward or disappear, another would build up.

This atmospheric pattern continued into September, making it the Spokane area’s second warmest September on record. The only September that was warmer occurred in 1938.

We barely had time to put the fans away when a huge dust storm swept across eastern Washington and northern Idaho on September 25th. By late afternoon, a billowing wall of dust turned the sky brown, snarled traffic and knocked out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses. What caused it? The arrival of a cold front produced strong winds that whipped up dust from dry, recently plowed fields.

In November, twice as much precipitation fell as normal, which is a lot. And talk about a slogfest – November through December produced the most precipitation since 1973, much of it in the form of precipitation at lower elevations. In fact, it was the second wettest November-December period in our area since 1900. Much of the moisture was caused by a parade of atmospheric rivers, where long, narrow plumes of water vapor form over the Pacific Ocean and dump rain, snow and wind as they reach land.

On December 18, gusts of nearly 70 mph were reported at Spokane International Airport as a windstorm fueled by an atmospheric river downed trees and power lines. A large tree fell on US Highway 2, hitting a commercial box truck and killing two men inside.

Christmas Day, more beige than white, was 7 degrees warmer than average for that date. Although the year ended with above average precipitation, it did not come from snow, but mostly from precipitation in November and December.

As we enter the first full week of 2025, snowfall in the Spokane area is about half of normal for this time of year. The weather is on everyone’s lips, it seems. When will the rain stop and the snow stick around? Enough of the gloom – how about a clear, sunny day?

If the near-term forecast is accurate, we can expect more seasonal temperatures interspersed with areas of fog, isolated snow showers and mostly cloudy skies with occasional glimpses of the sun.

And luckily less rain.

Nic Loyd is a Washington state meteorologist. Linda Weiford is a science writer in Moscow, Idaho who is also a weather geek.