Boise to heat up quickly early next week. But will it stay warm? Here’s what to expect
A low-pressure system in the Gulf of Alaska will be responsible for both unseasonably high temperatures in Boise and the crash back to reality over the next week.
The National Weather Service forecasts Boise to hit 77 degrees on Monday, the highest temperature recorded this year. Temperatures will go up gradually over the weekend, from a high of 54 on Friday to 60 on Saturday and 70 on Sunday.
The rapid increase will break Boise’s record streak of days without hitting 60 degrees. The city broke the 124-year-old record on Wednesday at 154 days, and assuming Saturday’s forecast is correct, the record will come to rest at 156 days.
And it’s all because of a weather system more than 1,500 miles away.
“The cold air that we’ve had over us has moved to the east already. And we’re getting another system coming in the Gulf of Alaska,” Korri Anderson, a meteorologist with the Weather Service in Boise, told the Idaho Statesman.
“And so that’s switched our flow aloft to the southwest. And that’s bringing in warmer air down from the subtropics, like California, and so it’s allowing that warm air to come up here.”
A high of 77 on Monday would be unseasonably warm. The average high temperature for early April is 60 degrees.
The quick change has caused the Weather Service to issue a hydrological outlook for Southern Idaho. The outlook warns of “increased flows and significant rises on area rivers” as snow in the mountains melts.
A quick melting would cause the Boise River to rise, Anderson said, but it shouldn’t be a concern for anyone living in Boise. The main concern is for areas with snow currently on the ground, such as in the Boise Mountains or the Camas Prairie, according to Anderson.
After Boise shoots up to 77 on Monday, it will tumble back to a high of 55 degrees by Wednesday. And it’s all because of the same system.
“That really unseasonably strong low pressure in the Gulf of Alaska is drawing up the warm air ahead of it, and then we’re going to get the cold front on Tuesday,” Anderson said. “ ... That cold front will have a lot of cold air in it. So when that comes in, it’ll drop us down about 20 degrees.”
Boise residents should soak in the quick blast of warm air. The Climate Prediction Center forecasts that Idaho will experience below-average temperatures for the next month, meaning it likely won’t hit 70 again for the foreseeable future.
