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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Rainfall dampens fire worries


Combines are parked in a partially harvested field outside Cheney on Friday morning.
 (Christopher Anderson/ / The Spokesman-Review)

With tinder-dry conditions created by below-normal precipitation for the year, rain pouring over the Inland Northwest on Friday was a welcome sight.

“But we could always use more,” said Bob Bonner, a National Weather Service technician.

A strong Pacific storm system was expected to bring more showers, thunderstorms and cooler conditions to the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene areas through Friday evening, with temperatures below normal through Sunday, the weather service said.

“Today, I’m sure we’ll see at least a third of an inch. I would say that’s a nice rainfall,” Bonner said of Friday’s storm. “We needed it.”

Precipitation in Eastern Washington and North Idaho has been below average throughout the year, with only 8.92 inches recorded so far. The average is about 9.78 inches, Bonner said.

The last significant rain event was in June. Before that, it was at the end of May, when 2 1/2 inches fell over two days. July rainfall only amounted to .008 of an inch, Bonner said.

“That’s well below normal,” he said.

The dry conditions have had firefighters on edge for weeks. A dust storm followed by lightning storms swept through the region Monday, sparking a number of wildfires.

“It definitely put a damper on the fire problems, for a while,” Bonner said. “But we’re still below normal, and probably, in a couple of weeks we’ll be back where we were, unless we get more (rain).”

August and September are not typically months of heavy rainfall, Bonner said.

While Friday’s spout of rain was a reprieve for firefighters, it sent local law enforcement scrambling to respond to a flood of collisions on area highways.

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office and the Spokane Police Department responded to 30 crashes in the Spokane area between 7 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., said Cpl. Dave Reagan, sheriff’s spokesman. No major injuries were reported.

The Washington State Patrol reported seven accidents between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., none them of serious, a dispatcher said.

“Many drivers are apparently forgetting that oil builds up on asphalt roadways during dry spells,” Reagan said. “Once wet with rain, the roadways become much more slippery than when simply wet.”