By Jared Brown

The Spokesman-Review

SPOKANE — Fewer smoke-filled days this summer showed that 2017 and 2018 may not be the new weather norm for the Pacific Northwest.

That’s in part because 2019 had more rain and fewer long heat spells than the past two years, officials say.

The hottest period in the Spokane area this summer fell between Aug. 4 and Aug. 8, when the temperature was at least 90 degrees each day and reached 98 on Aug. 7, according to National Weather Service data. The mean maximum temperature this summer was just short of 81 degrees, compared to 81.6 in 2018, and 84.7 degrees in 2017.

Timely rain that came along with thunderstorms on seven days this year also helped prevent large wildfires, said Guy Gifford, a spokesperson for the state Department of Natural Resources.

So far there have been 518 wildfires in Washington since January, slightly more than the 492 through August 2018. But 44,000 of the 48,500 acres burned this year were from a single fire, the Williams Flats Fire.

“And when we did get a few of these large fires, we did have adequate resources on those fires,” Gifford said.

The Spokane Clean Air Agency saw the effects on air quality from that, spokesperson Lisa Woodard said.

“In terms of air quality, the summer of 2019 was pretty friendly,” she said. “Not only did we have fewer bad smoky days, but those smoky days weren’t as concentrated as we have had in the past.”

In 2017 and 2018 there were three days where the air quality index reached “very unhealthy” in Spokane, with numbers above 200.

“If we will be this fortunate next summer remains to be seen,” Woodard said. “Because we can’t predict what will happen, we will continue to be prepared.”