A strong dry cold front dropped south from British Columbia during the late afternoon and early evening hours. Windy conditions and low humidities both ahead of and immediately behind the cold front resulted in new large fires over portions of the inland northwest.
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Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS OTX wrote it up.
A strong dry cold front dropped south from British Columbia during the late afternoon and early evening hours. Windy conditions and low humidities both ahead of and immediately behind the cold front resulted in new large fires over portions of the inland northwest. The Spokane Valley Fire was human caused and destroyed 11 homes and 10 out buildings in the Dishman Hills area and burned 1,006 acres. Conditions were very extreme when the fire started with Felts Field at 4 PM PST reported a temperature of 81 degrees, a relative humidity of 10 percent, and sustained west winds of 24 MPH gusting to 44 MPH. A separate fire in Cheney destroyed a garage. A state of emergency was declared by the state governor in Spokane and Ferry counties. The strongest winds from this front channeled down the Okanogan Valley, where Oroville received a peak wind gust of 74 MPH, and Omak 59 MPH. Numerous trees and power poles were blown down by the high winds. There was a total of 5,000 power outages mostly around Oroville, Tonasket, and Omak. In Tonasket, a ten inch diameter tree was downed by the winds, causing extensive damage to a carport and RV. Power poles were also blown down by the winds in Tonasket. Blowing dust was also common with the front passage with visibilites as low as a half mile in Omak. Colville and areas just north of Colville also saw strong winds with gusts to 55 mph which resulted in numerous 12 inch diameter trees as well as several power lines being knocked down. Eight thousand customers lost power in Colville. Several trees were blown down on highway 20 west of Republic. In Kettle Falls, wind gusts to 55 mph knocked down several tree branches. Several other large fires resulted which spread quickly by the strong winds. These include the French Valley Fire, centered seven miles southeast of Omak, which burned 1,420 acres. This fire had an unknown cause, which spread rapidly to the south on the 10th by strong north winds. Fires in Stevens and Ferry Counties resulted mostly from downed power lines. There was structural damage from the fires to a barn, shed, and home.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Spokane, WA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 10, 1:45 PM PST, 30 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SPOKANE WA
245 PM PDT THU JUL 10 2008
.SYNOPSIS...A TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE WILL DROP INTO SOUTHEAST
BRITISH COLUMBIA LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. THIS TROUGH
WILL PUSH A RELATIVELY STRONG BUT GENERALLY DRY COLD FRONT
THROUGH THE INLAND NORTHWEST. THE MAIN IMPACT OF THIS FRONT
WILL BE TO BRING BREEZY WINDS TO MOST LOCATIONS AS WELL AS
SOME COOLING. UPPER LEVEL RIDGING WILL REBUILD OVER THE REGION
ON FRIDAY LOWERING WIND SPEEDS AND BRINGING MORE DRY WEATHER.
&&
.DISCUSSION...
TONIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY NIGHT...WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT
WITH INCOMING DISTURBANCE ASSOCIATED WITH DARKENING ON WATER VAPOR
IMAGERY THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING...WHICH TYPICALLY AFFECTS
LOCATIONS NORTH OF OMAK IN THE OKANOGAN VALLEY WITH SIGNIFICANT
NORTHERLY WINDS. THIS WAVE HAS ALREADY PRODUCED A WIND GUSTS TO 67
MPH IN PENTICTON BRITISH COLUMBIA IN THE OKANOGAN VALLEY THIS
AFTERNOON. ADDITIONALLY RED FLAG WARNINGS REMAIN IN AFFECT FOR
MANY LOCATIONS DUE TO LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY AND A PASSING COLD
FRONT WHICH IS KEEPING IT RATHER BREEZY FOR MANY LOCATIONS.
ADDITIONALLY MINIMAL WORDING FOR SMALL CHANCE OF LATE AFTERNOON
AND EARLY EVENING CONVECTION NEAR THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINS NEAR THE
SOUTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA BORDER REMAINS...PERHAPS A HANDFUL OF
LIGHTNING STRIKES AT BEST AS THIS FEATURE IS MAKING A SPEEDY
PROGRESSION THROUGH THE AREA. THE ABOVE MENTIONED DISTURBANCES
MAKE THEIR EXIT TONIGHT AND SHORTWAVE RIDGING MOVES IN FROM THE
WEST. RIDGE OVER THE REGION AMPLIFIES VERY LITTLE AND REMAINS
RATHER FLAT AND PRONE TO MINOR NUISANCE SHORTWAVE PASSAGES THROUGH
IT...NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO PRODUCE ANY MEANINGFUL CHANCE OF
MEASURABLE PRECIPITATION BUT ENOUGH TO PERHAPS CAUSE CLUTTER TO
THE WIND AND SKY FORECAST. FOR THE MOST PART EVEN WITH THESE
COMPLICATIONS THE FORECAST REMAINS DRY WITH A VERY MINIMAL WARMING
TREND INTO SATURDAY NIGHT. /PELATTI
SUNDAY THROUGH THURSDAY...EXTENDED FORECAST MODELS ARE IN GOOD
AGREEMENT WITH THE LONG WAVE PATTERN. A WESTERLY FLOW ALOFT WILL
PERSIST FROM SUNDAY THROUGH THURSDAY WITH OCCASIONAL SHORT WAVES
MOVING INTO BRITISH COLUMBIA. THIS PATTERN WILL SUPPRESS ANY
MOISTURE FROM COMING UP AROUND THE FOUR CORNERS HIGH WELL SOUTH
AND EAST OF THE AREA. MEANWHILE...WITH THE SHORT WAVES PASSING
NORTH OF THE AREA IN THE WESTERLY FLOW...THE BEST MOISTURE AND
DYNAMICS WILL STAY TO OUR NORTH. NET RESULT IS A DRY FORECAST WITH
JUST A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS OVER NORTH IDAHO MOUNTAINS NEAR
THE CANADIAN BORDER. CONCERNING TEMPERATURES...ON SUNDAY WE WILL
BE IN SW FLOW AHEAD OF AN APPROACHING WAVE YIELDING TEMPS SLIGHTLY
ABOVE NORMAL. THEN FOLLOWING THE WAVE PASSAGE TO OUR NORTH...TEMPS
WILL COOL TO NEAR TO SLIGHTLY BELOW NORMAL READINGS FOR MON/TUE
BEFORE WARMING TO NEAR TO SLIGHTLY ABOVE NORMAL AGAIN WED/THU. JW
&&
.AVIATION...
DRY COLD FRONT EXPECTED TO BRING SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN WIND AND
A SMALL THREAT OF THUNDER NEAR THE CANADIAN BORDER. SOME BLOWING
DUST MIGHT OCCUR WITH THE GUSTY WIND BETWEEN 21Z-04Z THURSDAY
WHICH MAY INTERRUPT THE PREVALENT VFR CONDITIONS. /PELATTI
&&
.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
SPOKANE 48 80 52 84 55 88 / 0 0 0 0 0 0
COEUR DALENE 47 78 50 82 51 86 / 0 0 0 0 0 0
PULLMAN 40 79 45 82 48 87 / 0 0 0 0 0 0
LEWISTON 54 87 55 90 57 96 / 0 0 0 0 0 0
COLVILLE 42 84 47 87 50 90 / 10 0 0 0 0 0
SANDPOINT 44 77 43 80 45 83 / 10 0 0 0 0 0
KELLOGG 48 76 49 79 53 84 / 10 0 10 0 0 0
MOSES LAKE 52 86 54 90 58 93 / 0 0 0 0 0 0
WENATCHEE 55 85 58 90 64 90 / 0 0 0 0 0 0
OMAK 48 86 53 90 57 91 / 0 0 0 0 0 0
&&
.OTX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
ID...NONE.
WA...RED FLAG WARNING UNTIL 8 PM PDT THIS EVENING FOR LOWER GARFIELD
AND ASOTIN COUNTIES...MOSES LAKE AREA...NORTHEAST BLUE
MOUNTAINS...SPOKANE AREA...UPPER COLUMBIA BASIN...
WASHINGTON PALOUSE...WATERVILLE PLATEAU.
RED FLAG WARNING UNTIL 8 PM PDT THIS EVENING FOR EAST SLOPES
NORTHERN CASCADES...OKANOGAN VALLEY...WENATCHEE AREA.
HIGH WIND WARNING UNTIL 8 PM PDT THIS EVENING FOR OKANOGAN
VALLEY.
&&HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SPOKANE WA 806 AM PDT THU JUL 10 2008 WAZ031>036-041>044-111500- NORTHEAST BLUE MOUNTAINS-LOWER GARFIELD AND ASOTIN COUNTIES- WASHINGTON PALOUSE-MOSES LAKE AREA-UPPER COLUMBIA BASIN- SPOKANE AREA-WENATCHEE AREA-EAST SLOPES NORTHERN CASCADES- OKANOGAN VALLEY-WATERVILLE PLATEAU- 806 AM PDT THU JUL 10 2008 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL WASHINGTON...EAST CENTRAL WASHINGTON...NORTH CENTRAL WASHINGTON... NORTHEAST WASHINGTON AND SOUTHEAST WASHINGTON. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT GUSTY WINDS AND LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITIES WILL COMBINE TO PRODUCE POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS THIS AFTERNOON AND EARLY THIS EVENING. WINDS WILL SUBSIDE THIS EVENING. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. IDZ001>004-026-027-WAZ037-038-111500- NORTHERN PANHANDLE-COEUR DALENE AREA-IDAHO PALOUSE- CENTRAL PANHANDLE MOUNTAINS-LEWISTON AREA- LEWIS AND SOUTHERN NEZ PERCE COUNTIES-NORTHEAST MOUNTAINS- OKANOGAN HIGHLANDS- 806 AM PDT THU JUL 10 2008 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF NORTH IDAHO... NORTH CENTRAL IDAHO...NORTH CENTRAL WASHINGTON AND NORTHEAST WASHINGTON. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
3 strong wind, 3 wildfire, 2 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Washington in 2008Every state in 2008This day in weather historyWarnings in Washington, July 2008
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 108905, 108927, 128364, 128361, 127629, 108910, 127331, 108907.