Fire started from farm equipment working and field and quickly spread in the dry grasses by 25 MPH winds.
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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.
Fire started from farm equipment working and field and quickly spread in the dry grasses by 25 MPH winds.
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 4, 9:43 AM PST, 1 hour 2 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Spokane WA 1043 AM PDT Thu Aug 4 2022 .SYNOPSIS... Today and Friday will be cooler, with afternoon temperatures in the 80s following the passage of a cold front. The front will produce gusty westerly winds today. By Sunday, the majority of the Inland Northwest will experience highs in the 90s. Monday and Tuesday will be quite hot with upper 90s and 100s returning to much of the region. A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms arrives for the mountains Wednesday, with breezy conditions across the region. && .DISCUSSION... Thursday: A cold front will pass through the region today bringing gusty winds and cooler temperatures. This will be a dry cold front with a few minor exceptions. Gusty winds will be the most impactful weather for today creating challenging conditions for fire fighters battling ongoing fires and any new starts. Today is another day to vigilant and cautious around dry grasses to avoid new fire starts. As of 2AM, the front has crossed into Northwestern Washington and will continue to sweep across Eastern Washington and North Idaho Thursday morning. Cold air advection coupled with a 13 mb pressure gradient from Portland to Kalispell will deliver a blustery day with sustained winds between 15-25 mph and gusts 30-35 mph. Wind direction will generally be from the west and southwest. Locally stronger wind gusts will impact the higher peaks across North Idaho and the Cascades as the upper-level jet carves into the region. NAEFS/ENS are indicating that the 850-700mb winds are indeed in the 95-99th percentile with projected speeds at 850mb/700mb of 30kts/40kts respectively. Forecast models do indicate a small stable layer below 700 mb which should keep these higher wind speeds from surfacing in the lower elevations but the potential will exist on the ridgetops. The air mass will not be as dry or warm as in the last few days but humidity levels will remain low and close to 20% suggesting fires will still be capable of spreading swiftly. Afternoon highs will only warm into the upper 70s to 80s something that has been observed in the region in nearly two weeks. We are getting weak echoes along the front which is coming onshore with a narrow axis of moisture. Rain has been reported at a few sites over Western WA and in southern BC. Best chance for any rain across my forecast area will be along the Cascade Crest and potential for a spotty shower along the Canadian Border. The atmosphere will destabilize under the 500 mb cold pool Thursday afternoon however a dry slot behind the cold front will just about eliminate any chance for precipitation and probably clouds for that matter for much of E WA and N ID. Cumulus buildups are expected in southern BC with a few afternoon showers and thunderstorms. This activity has about a 20% chance to skim the international border around Danville, Laurier, and Northport. Winds will start to shift to the northwest this evening and remain gusty through our Cascade river valleys, over the Western Basin, and down the Okanogan Valley but speeds will decrease closer to 10-20 mph with gusts near 25 mph. The northerly gradients will continue into Friday morning keeping a steady north wind from Oroville to Ephrata. The remainder of the region will experience winds dropping near 10 mph or less overnight. With more fires in the region and ongoing fires in southern BC, smoke is becoming more of an issue day by day. Smoke transport today will largely be west to east from the fire source with decent ventilation except immediately downstream of the fire. Nonetheless, we are seeing a few air quality sensors downstream of fires starting to report moderate to locally unhealthy air. Friday and Saturday: The cool upper-level trough will linger over the region Friday and slowly depart on Saturday. It will be a pleasant end to the work-week and into the weekend with seasonal temperatures and lighter winds. We will maintain light north to northwesterly pressure gradients. This will result in locally breezy conditions down the Okanogan Valley each morning, otherwise winds around 10 mph or less for most areas. Smoke from southern BC will continue to drift into the region. Smoke from fires near Vantage and Cheney will also drift to the south/southeast but under very light steering flow. Stronger overnight inversions could trap smoke closer to the surface resulting in localized poor air quality. Afternoon temperatures start off in the 80s on Saturday and warm into the 80s and lower 90s for Saturday. Overnight lows will dip into the 40s and 50s. No this is not a typo, many of our northern valleys could become quite chilly with overnight lows in the lower 40s. If you are heading to the campground, be sure to plan accordingly. /sb Sunday to Wednesday: The pattern looks hot and largely dry, thought some shower and thunderstorm chances do arrive around midweek. The period starts with a ridge building in, while a closed low sits off the California coast. The southerly flow increases through the week as that low edges northward. Ensembles and mean 500mb height cluster forecast maps show that trend, but there is disagreement over precisely where that low tracks. That is not a surprising thing as closed lows can often be hard for computer models to handle. However the southerly flow will still lead to that increase in temperatures, with the the potential for 90s and 100 degree readings. The hottest days continue to look like Monday and Tuesday. I increased highs a couple degrees over the previous forecast for Tuesday, which puts the Spokane Airport (GEG) at 100 on Tuesday and a few degrees warmer downtown. The NBM probabilities show about a 50% chance of reaching that century mark on Tuesday at GEG, which is a trend upward. Ensembles show high probabilities of over 90 degrees for most of the area, at 70-100%, and about a 30-80% chance of over 100 degrees with the highest confidence over the deeper Columbia Basin. This may require another round of heat advisories or excessive heat warnings for early next week. That southerly flow will also bring some instability and disturbances in, if not that closed low. So that will bring the chance for showers and t-storms to the mountains zones on Wednesday; but depending on how the models evolve that could expand. This is accompanied by a relative downward trend in temperatures over the region, but it still remains hot with above normal temperatures. Winds also become breezy, first around Tuesday afternoon and more notably Wednesday, with forecast speeds right now around 10-15 mph and gusts near 20-25 mph. The combination of potential thunderstorms that may not produce much precipitation and breezy conditions could be a concern for the fire weather community. Although confidence in t-storm activity is not high, any potential lightning is of concern this time of year. /Cote' && .AVIATION... 18Z TAFs: Wildfires near Vantage in central Washington and near Silver Lake in southwest Spokane county will produce smoke plumes that may be the flight path of Moses lake, Spokane metro, and Coeur D Alene airports today. Winds have begun to pick up across much of the region with a passing cold front. Expect sustained winds to be in the 15-25 mph range and gusts to 35 mph for most terminals. Potentially stronger gusts up to 40 mph will be possible across the Cascade gaps near KEAT. Winds will begin to decrease after 01-03Z this evening. Winds will turn to the north/northwest this evening with gusty conditions lingering around Wenatchee, Chelan, Winthrop, and Omak well into the evening while decreasing for Idaho and eastern third of WA. Smoke could remain an issue into Friday morning with stronger inversions starting to trap smoke closer to the surface. && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Spokane 81 50 82 53 86 55 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Coeur d'Alene 81 49 81 50 86 52 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Pullman 78 46 78 49 83 50 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Lewiston 89 57 87 58 91 59 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Colville 81 42 82 45 86 47 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Sandpoint 78 45 79 48 83 48 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Kellogg 76 53 78 56 82 58 / 0 0 0 0 0 10 Moses Lake 83 51 84 54 90 56 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Wenatchee 79 54 84 60 91 64 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Omak 85 51 86 55 91 57 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 && .OTX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... ID...None. WA...None. &&
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 astronomical low tide, 1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
Farm equipment working a field sparked a wildfire that was quickly spread through grass fields by winds. It burned from August 4-6. It burned 2500 acres. Six homes and eight outbuildings were destroyed.
Farm equipment working a field sparked a wildfire that was quickly spread through grass fields by winds. It burned from August 4-6. It burned 2500 acres. Six homes and eight outbuildings were destroyed.
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: 1054925, 1057737.