Summer will get its start on Wednesday with comparatively cooler temperatures than Fresno typically gets at this time of year.
The forecast high is 85 degrees, with similar temperatures through Friday.
The warm-up is coming, but it may not be as brutal initially as in past years — at least not at the beginning of this summer, said Brian Ochs, a National Service meteorologist in Hanford.
The low-pressure system that has bathed the region in weather coming off the coast will be replaced this week by a similar system that will hang around for a few days more before giving way to warmer temperatures this weekend, Ochs said.
Cooler temperatures will return early next week, he said.
“Looking at the Climate Prediction Center outlooks, I would say through at least the end of June we’re still looking at a pretty good chance that we’re going to have below-average temperatures continuing, probably around a 50 to 60% chance that will continue,” he said.
Latest to Crack 100 Degrees? July 16, 1998
Even though Fresno is prone to firecracker-hot temperatures by the Fourth of July, this year it may not be a triple-digit day according to the longer-range forecast, Ochs said.
But hotter and more typical summer temperatures in the upper 90s are likely by mid-July, he said.
Whereas the National Weather Service is predicting temperatures on the cooler side, The Weather Channel and other forecasters are predicting the first triple-digit day could hit Fresno by June 29 and continue through the July 4 weekend.
The latest in the year that Fresno reached triple digits was on July 16 in 1998, when the thermometer finally climbed to 101, according to National Weather Service records.
Cooler Temps Often Follow Wet Winter, Spring: NWS
And to what do we owe this cooler-than-usual spring and first days of summer? Ochs said we can thank the record-breaking winter and spring storms that doused California earlier this year.
“It is just a very persistent pattern that seems to happen pretty much after an active winter and spring,” he said.
