A low pressure system moved through Washington and brought substantial thunderstorms to the area. Reports were received of damage caused by the lightning.
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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 low pressure system moved through Washington and brought substantial thunderstorms to the area. Reports were received of damage caused by the lightning.
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 Aug 7, 3:47 AM PST, 4 hours 13 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Spokane WA 447 AM PDT Sun Aug 7 2016 .SYNOPSIS... A deep and slow moving low pressure system will move into the area over the next few days. This low will bring cooler temperatures and the threat of showers and thunderstorms. Some storms, especially Monday and Tuesday, could produce heavy rainfall around the northern mountains. A drying and warming trend will develop late in the week. && .DISCUSSION... Today and Tonight: Watching some weak showers moving through northeast Oregon. They will continue to move northward and expand through the early morning hours. Even at 2am there is still very dry conditions at the surface, so it may start off as sprinkles and then as the air mass moistens we may actually measure some light precipitation. This weaker wave will move north through the morning hours mainly east of a line from Ritzville to Republic. A stronger wave currently in southeast Oregon will move northeast through the morning hours and into central ID and western MT this afternoon. By this afternoon extreme eastern WA and north ID will destabilize and showers and thunderstorms will be likely. Think the stronger storms will be to our south and east over the Clearwater Mountains and Bitterroots, and perhaps as far north as the Cabinet Mountains of western MT. We will definitely will be watching this wave as it moves northeast to make sure our forecast is on track. That feature moves through during the afternoon hours and by evening things should start to quiet down. The closed low off the Olympics now will move over Puget Sound and bring a small threat of showers and thunderstorms to the crest of the Cascades through the evening and overnight hours. Winds have increased across the Cascade gaps this morning and will continue through the day and even increase a bit through the evening hours. Gusty evening winds are also possible up the Okanogan Valley and across the Waterville Plateau, Columbia Basin and into the Palouse and West Plains. Near red flag conditions are possible across portions of western Whitman county late this afternoon and early evening. Do not think it will specifically meet our criteria long enough or be widespread enough to issue any highlight. Temperatures today will be about 5 degrees cooler than Saturday with valley temps generally in the 80s, and overnight lows in the 50s./Nisbet Monday through Sunday: Monday and Tuesday has been our primary focus due to the potentially widespread thunder and heavy rainfall threat. And due to the convective nature of the upper low moving through the region, our level of confidence is low as far as narrowing down where the heaviest rains will be. Simply based on pattern recognition, the E. Slopes of the Cascades will see the heaviest pcpn Mon... with burn scars certainly facing the potential for flash flooding/debris flows. The focus for the heaviest rains will shift to NE Wa and the Idaho Panhandle by Tues before the low moves out of the area and a warming and drying trend begins. The only good news is that it appears the trend in model guidance is for a quicker translation of the upper low through the region. We have as much as one inch of pcpn for this 2.5 day period in the mtns. Expect well below normal temps Monday through Wed, then peaking into the upper 80s and 90s by next Saturday.bz && .AVIATION... 12Z TAFS: Disturbances slipping up from the south will bring a threat of -shra/-tsra over the eastern TAF sites. The best threat of vcts is from 12-18Z, with vcsh from 18-21Z. The threat shower/storms will continue around the mountains this afternoon and early evening. Locally breezy conditions expected in the afternoon, with gusts near 15-20kts, abating after 02-04Z. Speeds increase later near EAT (toward 00Z) with local gusts to 25kts possible thru 04-05Z. Primarily VFR conditions expected but brief MVFR conditions possible near any wildfire smoke or under any of the heavier thunderstorms. && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Spokane 81 55 75 54 73 54 / 30 10 20 30 70 60 Coeur d'Alene 81 52 75 52 73 51 / 50 10 20 30 70 60 Pullman 79 50 74 51 72 49 / 20 10 10 30 70 40 Lewiston 86 59 81 57 79 56 / 20 10 10 40 60 40 Colville 82 51 76 51 76 50 / 30 10 20 30 60 60 Sandpoint 78 50 74 50 69 48 / 60 20 20 50 80 60 Kellogg 77 50 72 49 67 49 / 60 20 20 60 80 60 Moses Lake 83 55 77 53 79 54 / 10 0 30 40 30 20 Wenatchee 81 58 75 54 79 60 / 10 10 60 70 20 10 Omak 86 55 78 52 81 57 / 10 10 60 60 40 20 && .OTX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... ID...None. WA...None. &&
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SPOKANE WA 550 AM PDT SUN AUG 7 2016 IDZ001-002-004-WAZ036>038-041>044-081300- NORTHERN PANHANDLE-COEUR D'ALENE AREA-CENTRAL PANHANDLE MOUNTAINS- SPOKANE AREA-NORTHEAST MOUNTAINS-OKANOGAN HIGHLANDS- WENATCHEE AREA-EAST SLOPES NORTHERN CASCADES-OKANOGAN VALLEY- WATERVILLE PLATEAU- 550 AM PDT SUN AUG 7 2016 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF NORTH IDAHO... CENTRAL WASHINGTON...NORTH CENTRAL WASHINGTON AND NORTHEAST WASHINGTON. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS NOT EXPECTED TONIGHT. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY A SLOW MOVING STORM SYSTEM WILL PASS ACROSS THE REGION THROUGH TUESDAY. THIS MOIST AND UNSTABLE AIR MASS HAS THE POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE ISOLATED TO SCATTERED SLOW MOVING HEAVY RAIN PRODUCING THUNDERSTORMS. FLASH FLOODING PARTICULARLY ON RECENT BURN SCARS...STEEP TERRAIN AND IN URBAN TERRAIN IS POSSIBLE WITH SOME OF THESE EXPECTED STORMS. IDZ003-026-027-WAZ031>035-081300- IDAHO PALOUSE-LEWISTON AREA-LEWIS AND SOUTHERN NEZ PERCE COUNTIES- NORTHEAST BLUE MOUNTAINS-LOWER GARFIELD AND ASOTIN COUNTIES- WASHINGTON PALOUSE-MOSES LAKE AREA-UPPER COLUMBIA BASIN- 550 AM PDT SUN AUG 7 2016 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF NORTH IDAHO... NORTH CENTRAL IDAHO...EAST CENTRAL WASHINGTON AND SOUTHEAST WASHINGTON. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.
The Spokane radar (KOTX), 157 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 16:00 UTC.
2 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
A report of lightning causing a house fire in Asotin, WA at 9am on August 7th was received through social media.
A NWS Employee reported that a home in the Spokane Valley of Spokane, WA was damaged by a lightning strike.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Washington in 2016Every state in 2016This day in weather historyWarnings in Washington, August 2016
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: 642265, 642266.