Slow moving storms brought heavy rain to the Cedar Creek Burn Scar area creating a debris flow across Highway 20. Observations in the near the site in Mazama showed rain amounts half an inch in hour and three quarters of inch in 24 hours.
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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.
Slow moving storms brought heavy rain to the Cedar Creek Burn Scar area creating a debris flow across Highway 20. Observations in the near the site in Mazama showed rain amounts half an inch in hour and three quarters of inch in 24 hours.
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 Sep 14, 3:53 PM PST, 7 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Spokane WA
453 PM PDT Wed Sep 14 2022
.SYNOPSIS...
Scattered slow moving thunderstorms will continue over north
central Washington into far northern Panhandle today into this
evening. Locally heavy rain will be possible over the steep
terrain of the north Cascades and Okanogan Highlands. The weekend
will be cooler and cloudy with daytime temperatures in the 60s
and morning lows in the 40s and a few 30s. Morning lows will dip
further early next week with some frost possible for the mountain
valleys.
&&
.DISCUSSION...
Tonight: Our attention will be on the radar for the remainder of
the afternoon into the early evening as clusters of showers and
thunderstorms bring localized downpours to northeast and north
central Washington as well as far north Idaho. So far this
afternoon, cells have been moving to the northeast between 20 and
25 mph. Cells will have the potential to be more stationary over
Okanogan county in the vicinity of the center of the upper low.
Okanogan county also has some of our steepest terrain and
vulnerable burn scars, so cells developing there will be of
particular interest. A Flash Flood Watch remains in effect through
late evening.
Thursday and Friday: A weak upper trough will remain over the
Pacific Northwest Thursday and Friday leading to 20 to 30 percent
chances of showers and thunderstorms mainly for our mountainous
terrain along the Canadian border. The widely scattered
thunderstorms that develop should have a different character than
those that we have experienced over the last 24 hours. With less
synoptic scale forcing, thunderstorms Thursday and Friday should
produce less lightning and have a lower potential for producing
flooding rains. Temperatures will rebound into the mid to upper
70s Thursday under partly cloudy skies. Cooler air will begin to
spill east of the Cascades on Friday with the arrival of a cold
front. Temperatures are expected to a few degrees cooler with
highs in the low to mid 70s Friday afternoon. We will be keeping
an eye on the wind forecast for Friday. At this time, it looks
like west winds of 10 to 15 mph with gusts to 25 mph. A few of our
powder dry fields in Adams, Lincoln, Grant, and Douglas counties
didn't get much rain last night. If the wind forecast trends up,
we may need to look at adding a bit of blowing dust to the
forecast for the aforementioned counties.
Saturday: The weekend will feel very much like fall. Mostly cloudy
skies on Saturday with a highs in the 60s will be significant
departure from the weather we had just a few days ago. By Saturday
night, the models produce increasing chances of rain showers into
southeast and south central Washington as a deep low pressure
trough digs along the coast of Oregon and northern California.
/GKoch
Sunday through Tuesday: The broad upper level Low continues to
dig southward along the West coast late this weekend. While the
airmass will bring cooler air into the Pacific Northwest, the
elongated trough will advect moisture from the south into eastern
OR/eastern WA and northern ID Sunday into Monday. Temperatures are
continuing to be advertised in the low to mid 60s during the day
and low to mid 40s overnight; a solid 5-8F degrees below normal.
With the influx, or continuation of, moisture in the mid levels
and weak surface winds with low to moderate lift, cloud cover may
prohibit any overnight frost from forming even given our cooling
overnight temperatures. Valley fog may be something we begin to
take a look at.
Monday and Tuesday, as the southern branch of the Low slowly
meanders inland and separates from the mean flow leaving another
trough to swing through British Columbia, the moisture will begin
to decrease. As this happens, the cooler air could settle into
some northern mountain valleys and result in some near freezing or
frost conditions. The cluster of ensemble models are all in
agreement on the trough digging along the West coast early in the
week, however the strength varies. In between the southern Low and
the northern trough, a deformation zone will lie across the Inland
Northwest which should bring about another chance of precipitation
mainly to eastern WA and northern ID, and more specifically the
mountains. The EC ensemble is advertising a healthy 0.25" of rain
for places from Lewiston to Pullman to Coeur d'Alene on Monday.
The EC ensemble has more members that want to cut off
the Low and send it off shore while the GFS ensemble would like to
quickly bring through the northern trough. Still quite the
division, but an overall cooler, breezy pattern and Fall like
start next week looks favorable. /Dewey
&&
.AIR QUALITY AND SMOKE...
The rain overnight into the day combined with a persistent deep
layer westerly flow has led to continued air quality improvement.
Low level winds will be light overnight into most of the day
Thursday following the departure of our upper low this evening.
Skies on Thursday have the potential to be pretty hazy especially
over the Idaho Panhandle and protected valleys of northeast and
north central Washington. The arrival of a cold front on Friday
should bring more improvement with a resurgence of west winds.
Many fires in the north Cascades, northeast Washington, north
Idaho, northeast Oregon, and southern British Columbia received
some rain overnight into this morning which is also good news.
Some of the fires that have produced smoke over the last couple of
weeks may not be as active. /GKoch
&&
.AVIATION...
00Z TAFs: Smoke and haze continue to minimally impact visibility
across the region. Shower and thunderstorm activity is generally
in the northern mountains and not expected to impact TAF sites.
Maintaining some HZ and MVFR visibility for both light rain and
residual smoke/haze. Small chance for overnight fog/stratus
development mainly in the northern valleys. /JDC
&&
.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
Spokane 51 76 49 71 45 68 / 10 0 0 10 10 0
Coeur d'Alene 49 75 49 72 45 70 / 10 0 0 10 10 0
Pullman 45 73 44 69 39 66 / 0 0 0 10 10 10
Lewiston 57 79 54 77 50 73 / 0 10 10 10 10 10
Colville 41 76 42 73 37 68 / 20 20 10 30 20 10
Sandpoint 45 73 46 69 42 67 / 20 10 10 20 10 0
Kellogg 53 73 51 69 47 68 / 0 0 0 10 0 0
Moses Lake 49 78 48 75 43 69 / 0 0 0 0 0 0
Wenatchee 56 77 54 73 50 67 / 0 0 0 0 0 0
Omak 53 79 52 76 46 70 / 20 10 10 10 10 0
&&
.OTX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
ID...None.
WA...Flood Watch until 11 PM PDT this evening for Northeast Mountains-
Okanogan Highlands-Okanogan Valley-Upper Columbia Basin-
Western Okanogan County.
&&The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 debris flow. Local standard time, as filed.
Heavy rain over the Cedar Creek Burn Scar caused a debris flow over Highway 20 near Mazama. Observations in the near the site in Mazama showed precip amounts half an inch in hour and three quarters of inch in 24 hours.
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, 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: 1057684.