Lightning started the Alligator Wildfire in North Ferry County on August 25.
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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.
Lightning started the Alligator Wildfire in North Ferry County on August 25.
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 25, 1:25 AM PST, 6 hours 35 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Spokane WA 225 AM PDT Thu Aug 25 2022 .SYNOPSIS... Scattered showers and thunderstorms will impact the Inland Northwest through Thursday evening. While some areas may not see a drop of rain, other areas may see strong storms with heavy downpours, hail, gusty winds and lightning. Drier and locally breezy weather arrives Friday through the weekend. Temperatures will remain warm into Friday, cooling off over the weekend, and then warming up again next week. && .DISCUSSION... Today through Friday Night: A closed low over the Spokane area early this morning will lift northeast into N Idaho this morning...and then into southern Alberta in the evening. Elevated instability ahead of the low will continue to trigger scattered showers with embedded thunderstorms into the early morning before this activity begins to push out of the area. Then attention shifts to afternoon convection. Plenty of lingering moisture with PWAT's near 150% of normal, afternoon heating, and steep lapse rates will lead to surface based convection in the form of scattered showers and thunderstorms. The best focus will be over the northern mountains into the ID Panhandle. The northwest flow on the back side of the low will likely allow some of this activity to come off the higher terrain into the Upper Columbia Basin and Spokane/Coeur d'Alene areas by late this afternoon into the evening. The instability isn't quite as great as yesterday with HREF showing CAPE values of 500-800 J/KG, but the slow movement will lead to locally heavy rain. This convection will die down after sunset with the loss of daytime heating, as well as a short wave ridge moving over the region overnight into Friday morning. The short wave ridge will lead to a drier day on Friday, although still enough residual moisture and instability over far NE WA/ID Panhandle for a threat of a few showers or thunderstorm mainly in the mountains. A weather system dropping down over Vancouver Island Friday night will help tighten the cross-Cascade pressure gradient leading to breezy winds in the lee of the Cascades. Relative humidity looks to remain above critical thresholds but the winds will result in the potential for increased fire spread with any new or existing fires. JW Saturday and Sunday: Temperatures briefly return to late August averages near 80 degrees this weekend as an upper level low over SW OR moves SE into our area. 24 percent of the ensemble (primarily GEFS members) has the trough axis many hundred miles east in central ID. If that were the case, our high temperatures may not exceed 70 in some spots Saturday. There may be some showers in the higher terrain of the cascades, but PWATs and forcing with this trough are meager. Winds will be breezy through the morning and early afternoon, but decreasing in the late afternoon/early evening. Sunday will also remain on the cooler side, especially if the low lingers in our region. Uncertainty rises with high temperatures Sunday since it highly depends on the position of the low. 87 percent of the ensemble (primarily GFS and Euro members) develop a very deep trough SE of Alaska which positively amplifies the downstream height field. Monday through Thursday: Ridging keeps our temperatures approximately 8 to 15 degrees above normal through Wednesday. High temperatures would range from the mid 80s to near 100 degrees. We will remain dry and sunny during this period. Thursday becomes more uncertain with an upper level low looming off the coast, but will likely be cooler as height falls occur. /db && .AVIATION... 12Z TAFs: As the best elevated instability shifts east of the region this morning attention will turn to the redevelopment of showers and thunderstorms this afternoon. The bulk of the activity is expected over the northern mountains into the ID Panhandle but the northwest flow may allow some storms to come off the mountains into the Spokane/Coeur d'Alene areas. VFR conditions are expected over the region except for some visibility restrictions under heavier showers and thunderstorms. This activity will diminish after sunset. JW && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Spokane 87 61 90 59 79 53 / 20 20 10 0 10 0 Coeur d'Alene 84 58 89 58 78 51 / 30 20 10 0 10 0 Pullman 85 55 87 53 76 46 / 10 20 10 0 0 0 Lewiston 93 66 95 64 84 58 / 10 10 0 0 0 0 Colville 88 51 90 49 81 45 / 30 20 10 10 10 0 Sandpoint 80 55 85 55 78 48 / 60 30 10 10 10 0 Kellogg 81 62 84 59 75 53 / 60 30 20 0 10 0 Moses Lake 94 61 95 57 83 51 / 10 10 0 0 0 0 Wenatchee 94 68 92 64 81 58 / 20 10 0 0 0 0 Omak 95 63 96 61 86 56 / 20 10 0 0 10 0 && .OTX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... ID...None. WA...None. &&
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SPOKANE WA
852 AM PDT THU AUG 25 2022
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0525 PM TSTM WND DMG 2 N CEDONIA 48.18N 118.17W
08/24/2022 STEVENS WA PUBLIC
DOWNED TREES AT A RESIDENCE NEAR ROUTE 25
AND BISSELL ROAD. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
&&
CMSThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
Lightning started the Alligator Wildfire on August 25. It was contained on September 29. It burned through timber in rugged terrain. It was 800 acres in size.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Washington in 2022Every state in 2022This day in weather historyWarnings in Washington, August 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: 1055032.