Fire started on July 7 from lightning.
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.
Fire started on July 7 from lightning.
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 Jul 7, 1:20 PM PST, 36 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Spokane WA
220 PM PDT Fri Jul 7 2023
.SYNOPSIS...
For most areas very warm to hot temperatures and dry weather is
forecast through the upcoming weekend. Chances for mountain
showers and thunderstorms are in the forecast for the next several
days along the East Slopes of the Cascades into the mountains of
northern Washington and the north Idaho Panhandle. Locally gusty
winds can be expected near these thunderstorms. A broader chance
of thunderstorms returns to the region on Monday before drier
weather and near seasonal temperatures on Tuesday.
&&
.DISCUSSION...
Today through Sunday:
Nearly stationary thunderstorms are likely causing flooding issues
on burn scars in Okanogan County this afternoon. The threat will
continue through the afternoon and evening as MUCAPEs stay above
1000 J/kg evening with forcing provided from an upper low just
offshore the WA coast and PWATs approaching up to 150% of normal.
The potential for gusty outflow winds is there with CAMS models
showing gusts as high as 40 mph reaching the Columbia Basin late
this evening.
Tomorrow and Sunday will likely have a similar evolution over the
northern Mountains and the Cascades as the low lingers offshore the
WA coast. Daytime highs on Saturday will range from the mid 90s to
just over 100. A heat advisory has been issued for the warmest
places including the Lewiston area, the Moses Lake area, the
Wenatchee area, Lower Garfield and Asotin Counties, and the Okanogan
Valley. The advisory is in place from noon on Saturday to 8 PM PDT
on Sunday. /Butler
Monday through Friday: Ensemble cluster analysis shows some
consistency in the depiction of a negatively tilted trof/cold front
passage Monday which is allowing for the currently depicted
potentially unsettled forecast consistency of increased and gusty
southwest winds along with possible thunderstorms and their
associated nuisance lightning. This will elevated the fire risk on
Monday. Storm motion Monday is expected to be southwest to northeast
at 20 to 25 mph so they would fast enough to not produce much
wetting rain over most lowland locations, however higher elevations
could see a bit more tendency to receive a wetting rain (.10 inches
liquid or more) from any resulting thunderstorms. In addition there
should be considerable cloud cover and near 5 to 10 degrees of
cooling of Monday's high temps in comparison to the peak high
temperatures of the seven day forecast expected the day before
(Sunday). Shortwave ridging and/or drier southwest to westerly flow
allows for a drying and warming trend Tuesday with some of the
deterministic runs suggesting potential for weak negatively tilted
shortwave passage as early as Wednesday/Wednesday night which is
followed up with more ridge amplification and a warming (and likely
drier) southwest flow. Low confidence in how impactful the
Wednesday/Wednesday night shortwave passage will be, for now have
left it to the NBM to address it which is allowing for slight chance
thunderstorm mention over some of the northern mountain forecast
zones Wednesday afternoon and evening.
/Pelatti
&&
.AVIATION...
00Z TAFs: There will be some haze from regional wildfires, but at
this point it is not expected to impact the surface enough reduce
visibilities below VFR (95% chance of VFR prevailing). Winds are
generally light and diurnal, except for any outflow from afternoon
shower/t-storms including some which may enhance a bit more gusty
north/northeast winds between 03-06Z Saturday.
&&
.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
Spokane 61 94 63 96 64 89 / 0 0 0 0 10 40
Coeur d'Alene 61 92 62 95 63 88 / 0 0 0 0 10 30
Pullman 57 92 60 94 61 86 / 0 0 0 0 10 30
Lewiston 67 100 69 102 71 94 / 0 0 10 0 20 20
Colville 53 93 56 95 56 88 / 10 10 0 0 10 50
Sandpoint 58 90 57 91 59 88 / 10 0 0 0 10 40
Kellogg 62 89 65 91 66 86 / 10 10 0 0 10 20
Moses Lake 65 99 65 100 66 90 / 0 0 0 0 20 20
Wenatchee 69 97 70 97 69 87 / 10 10 10 0 10 20
Omak 65 98 66 98 66 91 / 20 0 10 0 10 30
&&
.OTX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
ID...Heat Advisory from noon Saturday to 8 PM PDT Sunday for Lewiston
Area.
WA...Heat Advisory from noon Saturday to 8 PM PDT Sunday for Lower
Garfield and Asotin Counties-Moses Lake Area-Okanogan
Valley-Wenatchee Area.
&&The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
Lightning started the fire on July 7. It continued through the end of the July. It has burned 6956 acres of timber. No structures lost.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Washington in 2023Every state in 2023This day in weather historyWarnings in Washington, July 2023
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: 1127106.