Thousands without power after thunderstorms

Thousands remain without power in the Colville and Chewelah areas this morning after thunderstorms lit up the skies of the Inland Northwest on Sunday night. Avista is reporting outages affecting about 6,000 customers in the two Stevens County cities. About 500 remain without power in Spokane proper, confined mostly to the North Central and West Plains areas. Wind gusts surpassing 60 mph were reported at Fairchild Air Force Base around 8:30 p.m. Sunday, while a downpour dumping more than a half an inch of rain in 10 minutes was reported roughly an hour later at Deer Park. Multiple reports of downed trees and power lines were received at the National Weather Service office north of Airway Heights. Isolated severe thunderstorms are forecast for this afternoon, beginning after 11 a.m. Those storms may linger into the overnight hours, but the rest of the week calls for high temperatures in the middle to upper 80s with mostly clear skies.