Clouds blow over the Olympic National Forest seen from the summit of Mt. Ellinor near the Mount Skokomish Wilderness area.
If it feels like you lost a week of summer to the wildfire smoke, the next 10 days might be some consolation.
We're looking at clear, sunny skies, with temperatures reaching the upper 70s in Seattle and the 80s in some parts of the Puget Sound region.
If you have any outdoor chores -- painting, patching a roof, clearing your gutters -- "do it now, as we know the door will close," advised meteorologist Dana Felton of the National Weather Service in Seattle.
The warm stretch is courtesy of a strong ridge of high pressure and low-level offshore flow, Felton explained.
Though not record-breaking, temperatures are expected to be well above Seattle's normal for this time of year. A high of 77 degrees is more typical of the stretch of summer between July 19 and Aug. 16.
Felton said he can't promise two weeks of sunshine -- there's a front off the coast about 10 days out -- but he said this next stretch is going to be a pleasant reprieve from the autumn chill.
"Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday will be like normal, nice summer days," he said.
Warmth across the West isn't good news, though, for fire-prone areas in California, where Felton said there are already plenty of red flags.
In Eureka, Calif., it was 77 degrees at 6 a.m. Monday.
"That's definitely a bad scenario for the fire season," he said.
But here in Seattle? It's just plain home-improvement weather.
"We always get calls from painters (once the rain starts): 'Can I paint tomorrow?'" Felton said. "No, you can't do it tomorrow. You had 10 days."
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