Lightning started a wildfire about 6 miles south of Big Southern Butte in Butte County. It began around 3 pm on July 30th and grew to 25,712 acres quickly.
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 PIH wrote it up.
Lightning started a wildfire about 6 miles south of Big Southern Butte in Butte County. It began around 3 pm on July 30th and grew to 25,712 acres quickly. It was controlled by August 1st.
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 Pocatello, ID wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 30, 12:47 PM MST, 1 hour 43 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Pocatello ID 147 PM MDT Sun Jul 30 2017 .DISCUSSION...Thunderstorms have again redeveloped over higher terrain regions early this afternoon. Downdraft CAFE sufficient to support gusty winds, and earlier runs of HRRR today generated enough to support a few cells reaching near severe limits, especially in regions of outflow boundary interaction. Have kept gusty wind wording associated with thunderstorm development through the evening. Upper ridge continues to strengthen, with high centered over Nevada into mid week. High pressure and weakening moisture fields should preclude convective development most areas Monday, though kept some mention directly along WY border closest to deeper moisture for Mon afternoon and evening. A weak shortwave rotates around the high Tuesday, bringing some moisture along, so have kept weak precip chances mainly across the central mountain region late Tuesday. Otherwise, as high strengthens and axis surges north to the west of the region, have kept precip chances limited through the remainder of the week under the influence of drier northwest flow. Drier conditions will allow temps to rebound into the lower to mid 90s for most lower elevation regions. DMH && .AVIATION... Forecast nearly identical to yesterday, with isold t-storms over the higher terrain but moderate-high confidence in VFRs at all terminals. Have maintained VCTS at KSUN/KDIJ through 04Z. Storms will again be capable of heavy rain and gusty outflow winds. As was the case yesterday, the HRRR is generating very strong outflow winds (to 50kts!) impacting KPIH/KIDA from supposed future storms. Once again, believe this scenario is extremely unlikely and will leave it out of the TAFs in favor of closely monitoring and amending/calling ATCTs if needed as we always do. Outside of VCTS, winds will be very light at less than 10kts everywhere through Monday AM. Initial thoughts for Monday are that all terminals will remain dry and solidly VFR. A very isolated storm cannot be ruled out over the mntns, but will likely not affect KSUN/KDIJ. - KSmith/DMH && .FIRE WEATHER...Fairly dry conditions across our region throughout the week as a whole. Today, however, critical RH values are not expected for Eastern Idaho and portion of Central Idaho. Most of Southern Idaho will see below 15 RH with minimal recovery overnight. Monday is looking even drier with single digit RH values probable across the desert and Central Idaho becoming critical. As a note, EFD's are in the 80 to 90 percent range across portions of Central Idaho and increasing. Tuesday and Wednesday's dryness forecast is looking quite similar to Monday's then by Thursday some brief recovery is possible. Afternoon and evening thunderstorms will lead to LAL of 2's almost each day across portions of Central Idaho and the northern portion of Eastern Idaho across the Targhee NF. This trend generally will be done on Wednesday. Tuesday continues to look like a potential windy day as well, as a weak wave pushes into the region. Not much likelihood this will bring any wetting rains though. NP/DMH && .PIH WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None. &&
Special Weather Statement National Weather Service Pocatello ID 145 PM MDT SUN JUL 30 2017 IDZ019-302030- Upper Snake Highlands ID- 145 PM MDT SUN JUL 30 2017 ...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ADVISORY FOR CENTRAL FREMONT AND EASTERN CLARK COUNTIES UNTIL 230 PM MDT... At 145 PM MDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm near Island Park Reservoir or 12 miles east of Idmon, moving southeast at 10 mph. Dime size hail and winds in excess of 30 mph will be possible with this storm. Locations impacted include... Last Chance, Island Park Reservoir, Harriman State Park and Sheridan Reservoir. LAT...LON 4440 11180 4452 11162 4433 11129 4415 11156 TIME...MOT...LOC 1945Z 317DEG 10KT 4442 11165 DMH
1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
Lightning started a wildfire about 6 miles south of Big Southern Butte in Butte County. It began around 3 pm on July 30th and grew to 25,712 acres quickly. It was controlled by August 1st.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Idaho in 2017Every state in 2017This day in weather historyWarnings in Idaho, July 2017
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: 716818.