A Running List of All-Time Heat Records Broken in Pacific Northwest, Western Canada

 weather.com meteorologists

Published: June 30, 2021

A historic heat wave obliterated all-time records in the western United States and western Canada.

Through Tuesday, at least 36 locations in the western U.S. and another 38 in Canada have tied or set all-time record high temperatures in this torrid heat wave, among reporting stations with records since at least the 1960s.

Some of these locations have hit 110 degrees for the first time in their recorded history. Some, such as Seattle and Portland, have tied or set all-time records at least two days in a row. Some of these all-time records had stood for over 100 years.

Here is a list of the notable all-time records that have been tied or set so far, according to the National Weather Service, Environment Canada, and various other sources.

After that, we'll list some other oddities we've seen during this heat wave.

(FORECAST: When Will Relief Arrive?)

All-Time Records List

Canada's all-time heat record appears to have been crushed three days in a row.

Lytton, British Columbia, Canada, soared to an incredible 115.9 degrees (46.6 degrees Celsius) Sunday, then to 118.2 degrees (47.9 degrees Celsius) Monday and 121.3 degrees (49.6 degrees Celsius) Tuesday, not only smashing its all-time record, but that of the country, which had stood since July 5, 1937.

The Dallesport Airport just across the Columbia River from The Dalles, Oregon, apparently tied an all-time record high for Washington state, soaring to 118 degrees on June 28. Four other locations in Washington state also recorded a 118-degree high during the heat wave.

As with all potential state or national records, an ad-hoc committee from NOAA will examine the data and the weather instruments to verify a legitimate record tie, the NWS-Seattle tweeted.

According to the National Weather Service, Salem, Oregon, may have may have set the highest temperature on record west of the Cascades in the Pacific Northwest, when it soared to 117 degrees Monday.

Below are some more all-time records tied or set in each location during the heat wave. The previous all-time records in each location are listed in parentheses.

This is heat more on par with Phoenix or Las Vegas rather than the typically wetter, cooler Pacific Northwest, where average highs this time of year are in the 70s.

Washington

-Bellingham: 99 on June 28 (96 on July 29, 2009)

-Dallesport Airport, across the river from The Dalles, Oregon: 115 on June 27 then 118 on June 28 (111 on July 27, 1998)

-Ellensburg: 114 on June 29 (110 on July 26, 1928)

-Ephrata: 116 on June 29 (115 on Aug. 4, 1961)

-Hanford: 114 on June 27, then 115 on June 28, then 118 on June 29

-Hoquiam: 103 on June 27 (95 on Aug. 19, 2016 and Aug. 10, 1981)

-Longmire (2,762 feet elevation in Mt. Rainier National Park): 105 on June 29 (105 on July 14, 1935)

-Olympia: 105 on June 27, then 110 on June 28 (104 on July 29, 2009)

-Omak: 117 on June 29 (114 on July 26, 1928)

-Pasco: 115 on June 27 (115 in 1939 and 1898)

-Quillayute: 110 on June 28 (99 on Aug. 9, 1981)

-Seattle: 104 on June 27, then 108 on June 28 (103 on July 29, 2009); They also had three straight days with highs in the 100s for the first time on record. Their low of 73 on June 27 was also their hottest daily low on record at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

-Spokane: 109 on June 29 (108 on Aug. 4, 1961). They also tied their all-time record hottest low of 77 degrees on June 29.

-Stampede Pass (3,967 feet elevation): 99 on June 29 (93 in 2006 and 2004)

-Vancouver: Tied their all-time record on June 26 (108 on July 29, 2009), shattered that record on June 27 (112), then did so again on June 28 (115).

-Walla Walla: 116 on June 29 (114 in 1975 and 1961)

-Wenatchee: 114 on June 29 (109 in June 2015)

-Yakima: 113 on June 29 (110 on Aug. 10, 1971)

Temperature anomalies - in degrees Celsius - on June 27, 2021, as the record-setting Northwest U.S./Canada heat wave was kicking into gear.

Oregon

-Astoria: 101 on June 27 (101 on July 1, 1942)

-Bend: 108 on June 28, then 109 on June 29 (104 in 1939 and 1928)

-Corvallis: 110 on June 27 (109 on July 8, 1905)

-Eugene: 111 on June 27 (108 on Aug. 9, 1981)

-Hermiston: 114 on June 27 and June 28, then 118 on June 29 (113 on Aug. 5, 1961)

-Hillsboro: 109 on June 27, then 114 on June 28 (108 on July 21, 2006)

-Hood River: 109 on June 27 and June 28 (108 on Aug. 18, 1977)

-McMinnville: 111 on June 27, then 114 on June 28 (110 on June 24, 1925)

-Medford: 115 on June 28 (115 on July 20, 1946)

-Pendleton: 113 on June 28 (113 on Aug. 8, 1961)

-Portland (Airport): 108 on June 26, then 112 on June 27, then 116 on June 28 (107 on Aug. 8 and 10, 1981, and July 30, 1965)

-Portland (Downtown): 110 on June 27, then 114 on June 28 (107 on July 2, 1942)

-Redmond: 108 on June 27, then 110 on June 28, then 112 on June 29 (107 on Aug. 7, 1972)

-Roseburg: 114 on June 27 (109 on Aug. 15, 2020, and July 20, 1946)

-Salem: 113 on June 27, then 117 on June 28 (108 on Aug. 9, 1981)

-Troutdale: 109 on June 26, then 112 on June 27 and 116 on June 28 (108 on Aug. 17, 1977)

(MORE: The Relationship Between This Extreme Heat Wave and Climate Change)

California

-Mt. Shasta/Yreka: 109 on June 27 (109 on July 11, 2002)

-Sandberg: 107 on June 27 (106 on June 30, 2013)

Canada

In addition to the all-time national record, 37 other locations with records at least since the 1960s in Alberta, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories tied or set new all-time records so far, according to Patrick Duplessis, a Ph.D. candidate at Dalhousie University, Tyler Hamilton, a digital meteorologist at Canada's The Weather Network and Environment Canada.

Among these were a 103.6-degree Fahrenheit (39.8-degree Celsius) high Monday near the waterfront on Vancouver Island in Victoria and a 100-degree Fahrenheit (37.8-degree Celsius) high in the popular Canadian Rockies town of Banff, west of Calgary.

Also, a 100.6-degree Fahrenheit (38.1-degree Celsius) high Sunday in Yohin Lake crushed the hottest June temperature on record in Canada's Northwest Territories and may have been the highest in any month, there.

A rash of wildfires erupted in the intense heat in British Columbia and Alberta, generating their own thunderstorms, known as pyrocumulonimbi and triggering evacuations.

Other Oddities

This intense heat has lead to a number of bizarre impacts and oddities.

Here's a brief rundown of those.

(MORE: Heat More Deadly Than Tornadoes, Flooding, Lightning)

-The high on June 29 at Lytton, British Columbia, Canada, on June 29 (121 degrees Fahrenheit) matched the high that same day at Death Valley, California.

-Outdoor pools were closed in Seattle.

-Blueberries were cooked in the intense sun.

-Roads buckled in western Washington.

-Vinyl siding warped.

-A Washington town smashed its all-time record, but it wasn't as hot as this thermometer indicated.

-Snowmelt was so rapid bridges were washed out in Mt. Rainier National Park. Paradise - at about 5,400 feet elevation - reached 90 degrees on June 29.

-As mentioned earlier, it almost hit 100 degrees at Stampede Pass, Washington, a just under 4,000-foot elevation pass.

-The Portland Streetcar had to shut down service when its power cables were singed.

-Heat prompted delay of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Eugene, Oregon.

-A British Columbia fire department challenged residents to a water fight.

-Near Canada's hot spot of Lytton, British Columbia, fire crews couldn't battle a wildfire by helicopter because the air was too hot and wasn't dense enough to allow helicopter to hover.

-The heat was inescapable, even in the mountains. Stampede Pass, Washington, in the Cascades east of Seattle at about 3,672 feet elevation, soared to 93 degrees on June 27.

-It wasn't just extremely hot, it was as muggy as parts of the South along the Oregon coast.

-The NWS in Las Vegas was giving odds of Portland, Oregon, not just breaking its own record, but also tying the all-time Las Vegas record high of 117 degrees. Then Salem, Oregon, did just that on June 28.

-It was hotter Monday in Quillayute - on Washington's Olympic Peninsula (110 degrees) - than in Phoenix (109 degrees). Quillayute is one of the nation's wettest places, averaging over 101 inches of precipitation and 203 days with precipitation each year.

-The "heat dome" of high pressure above the ground responsible for this heat wave appeared like a breaking wave in the atmosphere, as illustrated by The Weather Channel senior meteorologist Stu Ostro.

-Forecast highs on June 28 were up to 40 degrees above average in Portland, a feat that is hard to accomplish anywhere in the summer.

-Seattle's SeaTac Airport only reached 100 degrees twice before this heat wave. On June 28, they hit triple digits at 11 a.m.

-Finally, Portland's temperature dropped from their all-time record of 116 degrees on June 28 to a low of 64 degrees the following morning as ocean-cooled air finally returned, a record overnight plunge, there.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.