Rain fall down for the year
June has been a pretty quiet month weatherwise for the Idaho Panhandle. Though a few strong storms moved through the area during the first week of June, we haven’t had to deal with any severe weather since then. Limited lightning has yet to contribute to any major fires. The only downside is that we’re coming up a bit short on rainfall, which as of June 27 totaled only .98 inches. Normal rainfall for June is nearly double that at 1.78 inches. Spokane is not doing any better, having received less than half an inch of rain for the entire month. We can expect even less rainfall coming up in July as it is normally the driest month of the year. July rainfall averages a mere .96 inches.
Dry conditions across the western U.S. continue to provide fuel for approximately a dozen large wildfires. Believe it or not, the largest fires are currently located in Alaska, with approximately 91,000 acres being affected. California comes in Second with about 17,500 acres burning. Drought and subsequent wildfires continue to plague the southeastern United States as well. For the first month of what is supposed to be a more active hurricane season, only one tropical storm has occurred. Tropical storm Barry brought much needed rainfall to Florida on the first of the month, however no additional storms have formed since then.
Locally, we are passing the peak season for severe thunderstorms, which occur most often in June. There are still opportunities though for thunderstorms in July and August which can produce strong winds and dangerous lightning. This past week was Lightning Safety Awareness Week. Last year, there were 47 confirmed deaths and 246 confirmed injuries nationwide due to lightning. Though the process that produces lightning is not completely understood, scientists know that lightning occurs due to charge separation in the atmosphere. Though this usually happens during a thunderstorm, lightning also can be triggered by volcanic eruptions, intense forest fires, and even snow storms. The current of electricity that makes up lightning flows between positive and negative charges (think of the plus and minus signs on your everyday battery). Because air is a very poor conductor of electricity, it takes a very strong charge separation to overcome the “insulating air” and for a lightning bolt to occur. Usually, it is a positive charge that builds up over the surface of the earth, while a negative charge forms at the base of the storm clouds. Though our eyes would deceive us into believing that the bolt of lightning travels from the cloud to the ground, it is more often the other way around. The thunder that we hear after lightning occurs because the bolt super heats the air around it. This creates a shock wave that we hear as thunder. Because light travels faster than sound, we see the lightning before we hear the thunder. The closer you are to the lightning bolt, the less time will elapse between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder.
Though it is still impossible to predict where lightning will strike at any given moment, scientists have found a way to track lightning strikes as they occur. The National Lightning Detection Network operated by Global Atmospherics in Tuscon, Ariz., is a network of at least 130 magnetic direction finders covering the U.S. Using triangulation, lightning bolts can be located and mapped. This information is useful in many ways. Meteorologists can concentrate on the storms producing the most lightning to expedite warnings to the general public. Forestry officials can ready their teams for areas where the highest potential of lightning sparked wildfires is occurring. Air traffic controllers can reroute airline traffic to steer them clear of the most dangerous storms, and utility companies can prepare to dispatch crews to specific areas where lightning may result in power outages.