Tri-Cities heat wave breaks 55-year record. When will 100+ degree days return?

The Tri-Cities heat wave that broke Wednesday was exceptional, according to National Weather Service data.

It set a new Tri-Cities, Wash., record for the most consecutive days of triple digit temperatures, with highs of at least 100 for 11 days in a row.

The previous record was a streak of 10 days of triple-digit highs ending Aug. 20, 1967.

The heat wave just ended started July 24 and continued through Aug. 3.

The warmest day was Friday July 29, the first day of the Tri-Cities Water Follies, with a high of 112. The heat wave ended with a high of 104 on Wednesday.

One person is known to have died due to the heat, U.S. Marine veteran Sean Aaberg, 38, who collapsed and died on the 1500 block of Thayer Drive in Richland in the late afternoon of Monday Aug. 1.

Benton County Coroner Bill Leach said didn’t have a home.

A friend told the Tri-City Herald that Aaberg, who shared a house with his girlfriend, had recently had an argument with her and had been living in his car for about a week. He had lived in Richland for four years and had a son.

The friend, who did not want to be named but had served in the Middle East with Aaberg, called him “the nicest guy in the world” and someone who would “do anything for anyone.”

Those who knew him said he had returned home with mental and emotional scars after his deployment to the Middle East.

During last year’s shorter, but hotter, heat wave in late June, four people in Benton and Franklin counties died in connection with the heat. None had air conditioned homes.

In June 2021, temperatures reached 115, and highs were at least 110 for five days. But the heat wave broke after five days.

The 2022 heat wave broke on Thursday with a temperature of only 88 at the Tri-Cities Airport at 5 p.m. A high of 88 also was forecast for Friday.

But hotter weather is returning.

The weather service forecasts a high of 104 on Monday and 101 on Tuesday and overnight lows in the 70s, before highs drop to the mid 90s Wednesday and Thursday.