Could Boise break this 88-year-old weather record? ‘It’s possible,’ says one meteorologist

The record-high temperatures for Boise the next three days are as follows: 104, 106 and 109 degrees, respectively.

For the first of those two records — Friday (July 29) and Saturday (July 30) — Boise is on the precipice of making history.

The National Weather Service predicts 104 degrees on Friday and Saturday, and 106 on Sunday. A temperature of 104 would equal the all-time high for July 29, which was set in 1934, and is close to the all-time high for July 30, which was set in 2003.

What are the chances that it could get even hotter than that?

“It’s possible,” Weather Service meteorologist Bill Wojcik told the Idaho Statesman on Thursday.

“I would not be surprised to get to 105 or 106 on Friday,” Wojcik continued. “Saturday, the same thing, even though we’re forecasting 104.”

The Weather Service is predicting 106 degrees for Sunday, but Wojcik thinks it would take a lot for the temperatures to reach as high as 109, a record for July 31 that has stood since 1892.

The Treasure Valley is under a heat advisory until 9 p.m. Sunday due to “dangerously hot conditions.”

“We have a very strong high pressure that originally developed over down by Arizona, eastern California, Nevada and Utah, and that high pressure has strengthened northward into Idaho and Oregon,” Weather Service meteorologist Stefanie Henry previously told the Statesman. “That’s leading to just more hot conditions.”

Although Wojcik said temperatures could soar even higher than predicted, he also acknowledged that a few factors could lower the temperatures.

Primary among those is the chance for wildfire smoke to block out some of the sun’s heat and drop the temperature a few degrees. Smoke from three wildfires in Central Idaho and a new blaze in Washington County produced a thin haze over the Treasure Valley this week.

“If the smoke gets thick enough, it can actually hold our temperature down during the day a degree or two, maybe even three degrees,” Wojcik said.

But according to Weather Service projections, Wojcik doesn’t expect a thick layer of smoke to hit the Treasure Valley and disrupt the hot temperatures. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality has issued a yellow air quality advisory for the Treasure Valley, meaning those unusually sensitive to air pollution are the only ones at risk.