The temperature outlook for July through September.

The National Weather Service has changed its summer outlook for the Pacific Northwest and predicts most of Washington and Oregon will not be as hot and dry as previously forecast.

The Pacific Ocean off the West Coast has cooled in the past month, leading to sea breezes blowing inland, according to the weather service’s Climate Prediction Center.

Sea-surface temperatures in the mid-Pacific are slowly cooling, too. A La Niña is expected to form before the end of September, possibly bringing wetter and cooler weather, according to the climate center.

The climate center in May expected summer to be hotter and drier than normal from coast to coast. The new outlook favors average temperatures and average rainfall in the western two-thirds of Washington and Oregon, and the western half of California.

“It’s not like we’re going to have a really cool summer, but they are dialing back on the prospects of a warm summer,” Washington State Climatologist Nick Bond said.

“It’s a little surprising the [waters off the West Coast] cooled off as much as they did,” he said. “It’s a nice example that things change. You don’t just make a forecast in March and hit the golf course.”

The climate center affirmed the Lower 48, excluding the Far West, is expected to be hot and dry for the upcoming three months.

Warm waters elsewhere, including the Gulf of Mexico, around Florida and off the New England coast, influenced the U.S. outlook, as did a trend toward hotter and drier summers.

Idaho continues to lean toward a hotter and drier than usual summer and early fall, as does the eastern one-third of Washington and Oregon, and the eastern half of California.

An El Niño, triggered by warm seas in the mid-Pacific, ended in June. Seas are near normal, but cooling. There is a 65% chance a La Niña will form before the end of September, according to the climate center.

La Niñas generally bring cooler and wetter weather to the Northwest. A La Niña could help late-season irrigation, Bond said.

The climate center says there is an 85% chance a La Niña will reign over the winter. Washington snowpacks are generally good during a La Niña.

The Washington Department of Ecology declared a drought in April because of a low snowpack, typical of an El Niño winter.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation forecast in mid-June predicted irrigators in the snow-reliant Yakima River basin in Central Washington will receive 48% of their full water allotments.

The projection was just 1% better than the reclamation bureau’s early June forecast, but stopped a spring-long trend toward the water shortage worsening.

Early June rain increased river flows and preserved water stored in reservoirs, according to the bureau.