Wet thunderstorms moving to the north and northeast at 20 mph produced heavy rainfall over parts of the East Slopes and North Cascades including parts of the Okanogan Valley. The resulting heavy rainfall produced some debris flows and Flash floods near Methow, Brewster and Carlton in Okanogan County of Washington.
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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.
Wet thunderstorms moving to the north and northeast at 20 mph produced heavy rainfall over parts of the East Slopes and North Cascades including parts of the Okanogan Valley. The resulting heavy rainfall produced some debris flows and Flash floods near Methow, Brewster and Carlton in Okanogan County of Washington. Later on in the day this same disturbance produced more severe thunderstorms with two tornadoes occurring, one near Mould, WA and a second near Airway Heights, WA along with a number of fallen trees in the Spokane area.
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 22, 1:48 AM PST, 40 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Spokane WA 248 AM PDT Fri Jul 22 2016 .SYNOPSIS... Scattered showers and thunderstorms will accompany the passage of a cold front today. Locally heavy rain and lightning will be possible through the early morning hours. Convection may weaken late in the morning, but the potential for locally heavy rain will increase again for the afternoon and linger into this evening. A warm and dry summer pattern will arrive Sunday and persist through next week. && .DISCUSSION... ...THUNDERSTORMS WITH HEAVY RAIN OVER THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINS AND BREEZY WINDS THROUGH GAPS AND OUT OVER BASIN TODAY... Today: A vigorous upper level low pressure system is beginning to shift over southwestern WA at 2:00 AM this morning. A strong vorticity maximum rounding the base of the low will provide strong upper level dynamics. There will be generally two areas of convection to watch out for through this morning. One area will be in the strongest PVA portion of the upper level low where radar is currently showing a swatch of showers and thunderstorms across the east slopes of the Cascades over to the western basin and Okanogan Highlands. This convection will follow the low through today. The second area of convection will occur under the downstream upper level diffluent pattern of the low, generally extending from the NE Blue Mtns to the Spokane Area and into the ID Panhandle. Convection will favor a ribbon of elevated instability with 200-400 J/kg of MUCAPE in the 700-300 mb layer. Current radar imagery is already showing convection beginning to form across this area and will expand in coverage through this morning. The northeastern portion of the region will see showers and thunderstorms through much of today with best chances generally occurring from the Okanogan Vly/Highlands over to the Northern Panhandle and as far south as the northern basin to the Central Panhandle Mtns. Convective temperatures will be reached fairly quickly today with surface based convection likely beginning to form around noon. P-wats will be up to near an inch. Surface based CAPEs will be up near 1000 J/kg across the northern portion of the region. Steering flow will also be to the west at 10-20 mph over the east slopes of northern Cascades to the North Mtns. There will at least be some movement to the thunderstorms, but not very quickly. There were reports of very heavy rainfall with the surface based convection over the Cascades yesterday and I don't see a reason why that will be any different for today. Due to at least some storm movement, I think the main risk for flash flooding will be over recent burn scars. My confidence in the potential for flash flooding is only low to moderate as it is difficult to say how much convection will actually form over the burn scars. Will hold off on issuing a Flash Flood Watch at this time and see what the high resolution models yield (i.e. HRRR model) later this morning. Winds will also be picking up through the morning with gusts up to 25-30 mph possible over the exposed terrain from the Wenatchee Area and across the basin to the ID Panhandle. It will be interesting to see if any grass fires are ignited from the lightning currently occurring this morning. The winds would act to fan the flames. I don't see this as being a big fire weather threat however since there is at some rainfall with the thunderstorms even though they are high based. RHs tomorrow will also be fairly moist only bottoming out in the mid 20s. The upper level low will quickly exit the region this evening. This will bring an end to the active weather and we will see drier conditions on Saturday. The cold front tonight will bring much cooler temperatures to the region today with highs ranging from the 70s to low 80s. Slightly warmer temperatures are expected on Saturday. /SVH Saturday night through Friday...Once the latest low pressure system clears out to the east, the ridge of high pressure that has been bringing blazing heat to the Midwest will retrograde back to the west, then flatten out through the week as a series of weak weather disturbances moves through the region. Some isolated showers and possibly a lighting strike or two will be possible from time to time along the Canadian border through the week, otherwise it will be warm and dry. Heights and 850mb temperatures increase and will result in temperatures warming to to normal by Sunday, then 4-5 degrees above normal Tuesday through Friday. Winds will be light and mainly terrain driven. Moderate to strong morning inversions will be likely with moderate to poor relative humidity recoveries on mid-slopes and ridges. Moderate recoveries combined with afternoon relative humidity from 15-25 percent will allow fuels to dry out rather quickly. This will put the Inland Northwest in fire season and we will have to keep an eye on the lightning potential for the remainder of the summer. Tobin && .AVIATION... 06Z TAFS: Surface based convection has ended and elevated forced convection starting to form over the East Slopes of the North Cascades will become the primary nuisance over the aviation area overnight tonight through a good chunk of Friday Morning. After around 21Z Friday more surface based convection will occur over the Northeast Mountains and parts of the North Idaho Panhandle and should end by 4Z Saturday. With this in mind the aviation forecast remains peppered with mentions of showers and thunderstorms with emphasis on the elevated forced convection affecting most TAF sites during the late night and morning hours. Periods of frequent lightning and gusty and variable wind are possible with these thunderstorms. /Pelatti && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Spokane 74 55 78 57 86 60 / 80 40 0 0 0 0 Coeur d'Alene 73 53 77 54 85 56 / 80 60 0 0 0 0 Pullman 75 50 77 49 84 51 / 30 10 0 0 0 0 Lewiston 84 58 85 59 92 62 / 20 10 0 0 0 0 Colville 74 51 81 52 88 52 / 80 40 10 0 0 0 Sandpoint 71 50 75 50 82 50 / 80 70 10 10 0 0 Kellogg 71 50 74 50 82 52 / 70 60 10 0 0 0 Moses Lake 83 55 84 56 89 58 / 60 0 0 0 0 0 Wenatchee 79 59 83 61 88 64 / 30 0 0 0 0 0 Omak 81 55 85 59 90 63 / 70 10 0 0 0 0 && .OTX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... ID...None. WA...None. &&
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SPOKANE WA 636 AM PDT THU JUL 21 2016 IDZ002>004-026-027-WAZ031>036-041>044-221345- COEUR D'ALENE AREA-IDAHO PALOUSE-CENTRAL PANHANDLE MOUNTAINS- LEWISTON AREA-LEWIS AND SOUTHERN NEZ PERCE COUNTIES- 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- 636 AM PDT THU JUL 21 2016 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF NORTH IDAHO... NORTH CENTRAL IDAHO...CENTRAL WASHINGTON...EAST CENTRAL WASHINGTON...NORTH CENTRAL WASHINGTON...NORTHEAST WASHINGTON AND SOUTHEAST WASHINGTON. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT LOW PRESSURE WILL PUSH INTO THE REGION TONIGHT WITH SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS POSSIBLE. LIGHTING STRIKES AWAY FROM THE WETTER THUNDERSTORM CORES MAY RESULT IN NEW GRASS FIRE STARTS WHERE FUELS ARE RECEPTIVE TO FIRE. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY WINDS WILL BECOME BREEZY ON FRIDAY BEHIND A COLD FRONT PASSAGE WITH RAPID SPREAD OF GRASS FIRES POSSIBLE. IDZ001-WAZ037-038-221345- NORTHERN PANHANDLE-NORTHEAST MOUNTAINS-OKANOGAN HIGHLANDS- 636 AM PDT THU JUL 21 2016 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF NORTH IDAHO... NORTH CENTRAL WASHINGTON AND NORTHEAST WASHINGTON. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED ON FRIDAY. STORMS WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN...LEADING TO THE POTENTIAL FOR LOCALIZED FLASH FLOODING OR SLIDES...ESPECIALLY AROUND BURN SCARS.
The Spokane radar (KOTX), 21 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 10:29 UTC.
5 thunderstorm wind, 4 flash flood, 2 tornado, 1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.
A trained spotter reported a tree branch down near near Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA.
An NWS employee reported tree blown down on Euclid road which is approximately 3 miles north of Airway Heights, WA.
A member of the public reported flooding on private land along french creek road 1 mile northeast of Methow, WA.
A member of the public reported roadway washed out on SR 97 on Indian Dan Canyon Road which is approximately 4 miles west northwest of Brewster, WA.
An emergency manager reported water and mud over the roadway near 315 Burma Road which is approximately 1 mile south of Methow, WA.
An emergency manager reported SR-153, Just north of mile post 26 is closed due to mud and debris on roadway which is approximately 4 miles north northeast of Carlton, WA.
Two separate reports from the public, both with video, noted a tornado approximately 5 miles north northwest of Mold, WA.
An NWS employee reported debris from a tornado 2 miles East Northeast of Airway Heights, WA. The employee made video footage of the rotating tornado available on social media.
An NWS employee reported 0.88 inch sized hail 3 miles southeast of Spokane, WA.
Broadcast media reported a tree blown down on a home 2 miles north of Mead, WA.
Broadcast media reported trees down on powerlines 3 miles northwest of Mead, WA.
Broadcast media reported trees down on powerlines 1 mile North notheaset of Green Acres, WA.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Washington in 2016Every state in 2016This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Washington, 2016Warnings in Washington, July 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: 638328, 638339, 638335, 638336, 638337, 638338, 638334, 638333, 638332, 638331, 638329, 638330.