Lightning started the Caledonia Wildfire on September 1.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
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.
Lightning started the Caledonia Wildfire on September 1.
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 31, 8:40 PM PST, 4 hours 20 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Spokane WA 940 PM PDT Wed Aug 31 2022 .SYNOPSIS... Showers and isolated storms will move east of the region tonight as a weak system exits the Inland Northwest. Temperatures will ease a little on Thursday before another warmup on Friday with more triple-digit heat possible. Slightly cooler temperatures will arrive by the weekend accompanied by breezy winds and elevated fire concerns. && .DISCUSSION... Evening update: Plenty of cloud-to-ground lightning occurred with convection moving across eastern Washington and northern Idaho this evening. Several fire starts have been reported, most notably the Boulder Mountain Fire near the Pend Oreille/Stevens County border. Additionally, several gust fronts moved through the region this evening, with multiple reports of 30-45 mph wind gusts and even a few downed trees and power lines in portions of northern Idaho. Most of the convection has lifted into northwest Montana, but some spotty showers remain in far eastern Washington eastward. These may linger through midnight before shifting east of the CWA overnight. The forecast is generally in good shape, and have made no significant changes this evening. We did allow the heat advisory to expire earlier this evening. Expecting sub-advisory conditions on Thursday, but another advisory may be required for Friday, as high temperatures once again approach record values. Will evaluate the need for more heat products overnight. /CMS Wednesday: Mid-level instability around 250-750 J/kg and weak synoptic lift ahead of a shortwave has yielded isolated showers and thunderstorms through the early afternoon. Additional isolated development is expected through this evening as forcing improves, but the shortwave slowly is ingested into the upper level ridge by late tonight. Storms could contain gusty winds up to 40 mph as the subcloud layer is very dry. Dry lightning has also been introduced to the forecast given the dry profiles. No severe is expected as effective bulk shear ranges from 25 to 35 knots and mid level theta-e lapse rates range from 0 to -2 K/km. Additional development will likely occur in the Columbia Basin this afternoon and the threat slides north and east into the Spokane area/northern mountains/ID Panhandle. Winds look breezy in the Cascade gaps, Columbia Basin, and Palouse as deep mixing and cold advection in the low levels occur. Temperatures have been reduced in the Columbia Basin and Cascade foothills as mid level cloud cover has persisted through the morning. High temperatures range from the low 90s to low 100s locally in the Palouse/Spokane area. Low temperatures will be in the upper 50s to low 60s. Thursday: Thursday looks quiet but still hot as mid level height rises occur downstream the nearly stationary upper level low several hundred miles off the WA/OR coast. Highs will be in the 90s Thursday which corresponds to being 3-8 degrees cooler than Wednesday. These high temperatures are still 10 to 15 degrees above average. RH recovery overnight into early Friday looks poor with max RHs in the lower 40s. /db For Friday through middle of next week, the upper level pattern supports a strong upper level ridge over the western US that gets knocked down by a series of minor shortwaves ejecting from a low pressure trough in the eastern Pacific. On Friday, the upper ridge axis shifts across the Inland NW while low level southeast flow brings in another surge of warm air advection. Anticipate another very warm to hot day by Friday afternoon with daytime highs in the mid 90s to triple digits. Several locations may see near to record highs reached for Sept 2nd. Shortwave energy rolls across western Washington Friday night and westerly winds increase in the lee of the Cascades with local gusts into the Columbia Basin. Mid and high level moisture accompanies this shortwave and there is the potential for elevated convection late Friday night into Saturday across the Cascades, very similar to today’s weather. The strength and timing of this wave is still not pinned down, but as it pushes a cold front through the region it has the potential to continue the threat of convection into northeast Washington by Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile breezy winds develop region-wide as temperatures cool about 10 degrees on Saturday. For Sunday into Wednesday, the upper ridge axis remains suppressed with a southwest flow aloft across the region. High pressure returns at the surface with lighter east winds for Sunday, while temperature rebound although not as hot compared with those of this week. Sunday daytime highs will be in the upper 80s to upper 90s. There are signs of another weak wave brushing the region late on Monday with the potential of convection for the Cascades and afternoon gusty winds. Then the model ensembles hint at a stronger shortwave approaching by middle of next week, leading to a chance of mountain showers. Temperatures still remain above normal for early September. /rfox && .AVIATION... 06z TAFs: Most of the convection has moved east of the TAF sites this evening, though a few showers may linger near COE through 08z. VFR conditions are expected for the next 24 hours, though there may be some haze at the terminals tomorrow. Winds will generally be light and diurnally-driven, with predominant south or southwest winds during the afternoon in much of eastern Washington and northern Idaho. /CMS && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Spokane 61 93 60 98 61 88 / 10 0 0 0 0 10 Coeur d'Alene 60 91 57 98 60 86 / 10 0 0 0 0 10 Pullman 56 90 53 96 56 85 / 10 0 0 0 0 10 Lewiston 68 98 62 103 66 93 / 10 0 0 0 0 0 Colville 55 94 53 98 52 90 / 10 0 0 0 0 10 Sandpoint 55 89 51 93 55 85 / 20 0 0 0 0 10 Kellogg 62 87 58 95 63 83 / 20 0 0 0 0 10 Moses Lake 60 97 57 102 60 90 / 0 0 0 0 0 10 Wenatchee 66 96 64 99 67 89 / 0 0 0 0 10 0 Omak 62 98 62 101 64 93 / 0 0 0 0 0 10 && .OTX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... ID...None. WA...None. &&
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SPOKANE WA
805 PM PDT WED AUG 31 2022
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0652 PM TSTM WND DMG 4 NE PRIEST RIVER 48.23N 116.86W
08/31/2022 BONNER ID UTILITY COMPANY
DOWNED TREE AND WIRES NORTH OF PRIEST RIVER,
WITH OVER 1000 CUSTOMERS WITHOUT POWER. TIME
ESTIMATED FROM RADAR AND DISPATCH REPORT.
&&
CMSThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
The Caledonia Fire is approximately 18 miles Northeast of Kelly Forks Work Center. It burned 1535 acres of timber.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Idaho in 2022Every state in 2022This day in weather historyWarnings in Idaho, September 2022
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: 1057809.