This lightning caused complex of wildfires burned 65,587 acres and cost over $34 million dollars to suppress.
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.
This lightning caused complex of wildfires burned 65,587 acres and cost over $34 million dollars to suppress.
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 31, 9:37 PM PST, 2 hours 23 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Spokane WA 1037 PM PDT FRI JUL 31 2015 .SYNOPSIS.... Dry and hot weather will persist for the next several days. High temperatures in the 90s to near 105 will be common through the weekend. A cooling trend will start off the work week. A more dramatic change to the hot pattern will be the chance of thunderstorms each day from Monday through Thursday. && .DISCUSSION... Tonight through Saturday: Outside of a few high clouds...and valley smoke especially along Lake Chelan...the fcst will remain very warm with overnight low temps and high temps tomorrow well above average. We've extended the heat advsy through Sunday, with triple digit, or near triple digit, highs expected again tomorrow. The winds will remain light overall, though we may begin to see increasing westerly winds in and near Cascade valleys tomorrow evening. Saturday Night and Sunday: The strong ridge remains with continued very hot conditions. Main change to this portion of the forecast was to extend the heat advisory across the Lewiston/Clarkston area through Sunday evening. 850 mb temps on all models show at or slightly warmer temperatures for Sunday compared to Saturday. So, valley temps in the mid 90s with up to 105 or even slightly higher for those typical hot places across the Basin/LC Valley/Entiat etc areas. Sunday we should see an increase in some clouds from the south, but they will be fairly high thin cirrus and shouldn't have an impact on temperatures. Sunday night through Wednesday: Models are in surprisingly good agreement on Sunday night/Monday of some energy moving up from the south into the Pacific Northwest. This would bring an increase and thickening of clouds to the area. Sunday night could be quite warm given this cloud cover. It is the warmest night currently in the forecast with temps about 10 degrees above average for this time of the year. Kept thunderstorms in during the overnight period for our southeast forecast area. Then stretched that area north and west into the Columbia Basin and Okanogan Highlands by Monday morning and through the afternoon. By Monday evening the best chance of thunderstorms should be confined to extreme eastern WA and north ID. Sadly, after that wave moves through, the models totally disagree for the midweek weather. The GFS now brings that low off the central BC coast inland by Monday and puts us in a more west or northwesterly flow for Tues/Wed. The ECMWF on the other hand is similar with previous model runs in keeping the low up off the BC coast and bringing some kind of cold front and slightly negatively tilted trough axis through our area by Wednesday. Needless to say two completely different scenarios with two completely different affects on the weather. For now kept forecast similar to what we previously had and trended toward the ECMWF which is also similarly supported by the Canadian. Lowered our chance of thunderstorms on Tuesday to slight chance and kept our better chance of showers and thunderstorms for Wednesday. Temperatures will finally decrease to near average conditions, and perhaps by Wednesday be below average. /Nisbet Thursday and Friday: The poor model agreement paints a murky picture for the extended part of the forecast. The GFS is building a ridge that will diminish the precip for the region while the ECMWF brings another Low pressure system through the region. The forecast leans toward the ECMWF as it has been more consistent between runs. The region will be impacted by daytime isolated thunderstorms along the Northern Cascades and weaker chances for showers in the Idaho Panhandle. Temperatures for the region will around the mid 80s for highs and lower 50s for lows. /JDC && .AVIATION... 06Z TAFS: VFR conditions can be expected over the TAF sites for at least the next 24 hours. Expect some smoke aloft with the best chance for reduced surface visibilities around sunrise when the inversion is the strongest. High pressure across the region means only light diurnal winds at the TAF sites. JL && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Spokane 64 97 65 98 69 89 / 0 0 0 0 0 20 Coeur d'Alene 59 96 60 98 64 88 / 0 0 0 0 0 20 Pullman 57 97 58 97 62 86 / 0 0 0 0 10 20 Lewiston 68 104 70 104 72 93 / 0 0 0 0 20 20 Colville 57 98 58 100 61 91 / 0 0 0 0 0 20 Sandpoint 51 93 53 95 56 88 / 0 0 0 0 0 20 Kellogg 59 95 58 97 59 87 / 0 0 0 0 10 20 Moses Lake 60 101 63 102 69 93 / 0 0 0 0 10 10 Wenatchee 69 99 71 102 75 93 / 0 0 0 10 0 10 Omak 61 101 62 102 66 94 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 && .OTX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... ID...Heat Advisory until 8 PM PDT Sunday for Lewiston Area. WA... Heat Advisory until 8 PM PDT Sunday for Lower Garfield and Asotin Counties. &&
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SPOKANE WA 530 AM PDT FRI JUL 31 2015 IDZ001>004-027-WAZ031-033-036-037-011230- NORTHERN PANHANDLE-COEUR D'ALENE AREA-IDAHO PALOUSE- CENTRAL PANHANDLE MOUNTAINS-LEWIS AND SOUTHERN NEZ PERCE COUNTIES- NORTHEAST BLUE MOUNTAINS-WASHINGTON PALOUSE-SPOKANE AREA- NORTHEAST MOUNTAINS- 530 AM PDT FRI JUL 31 2015 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of North Idaho... North Central Idaho...Northeast Washington and Southeast Washington. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT No hazardous weather is expected at this time. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY The hot and dry weather will break down by Monday. There is a good agreement that an upper level trough will move into the region... bringing scattered thunderstorms...gusty winds and cooler temperatures. The most likely day for thunderstorms looks to be Wednesday afternoon and evening but Tuesday may be active as well. WAZ034-035-038-041>044-011230- MOSES LAKE AREA-UPPER COLUMBIA BASIN-OKANOGAN HIGHLANDS- WENATCHEE AREA-EAST SLOPES NORTHERN CASCADES-OKANOGAN VALLEY- WATERVILLE PLATEAU- 530 AM PDT FRI JUL 31 2015 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of Central Washington...East Central Washington and North Central Washington. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT No hazardous weather is expected at this time. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY The hot and dry weather will break down by Monday. There is a good agreement that an upper level trough will move into the region... bringing gusty winds and cooler temperatures. Isolated mountain thunderstorms are possible Tuesday and Wednesday. IDZ026-WAZ032-011230- LEWISTON AREA-LOWER GARFIELD AND ASOTIN COUNTIES- 530 AM PDT FRI JUL 31 2015 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of North Central Idaho and Southeast Washington. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT Hot temperatures are expected with readings 95 to 105. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY The hot and dry weather will break down by Monday. There is a good agreement that an upper level trough will move into the region... bringing scattered thunderstorms...gusty winds and cooler temperatures. The most likely day for thunderstorms looks to be Wednesday but Tuesday may be active as well.
1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
This lightning caused complex of wildfires burned 65,587 acres and cost over $34 million dollars to suppress.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Washington in 2015Every state in 2015This day in weather historyWarnings in Washington, August 2015
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: 599518.