Extended fire season possible this year
I have a large group of nonirrigated evergreen trees in my backyard. I figured that since these types of trees survive in the wild without anyone ever watering them, mine should fare OK. without receiving help from the sprinkler system. Mother Nature has not been very helpful recently and I finally had to drag the long hoses out to the trees. The area saw a long dry spell which started May 15 and didn’t end until June 8 with some much needed rainfall.
As of June 10, Spokane’s total rainfall for this year is at 7.14 inches, just over an inch below normal. Coeur d’Alene is doing a bit better, having received 12.25 inches of precipitation so far this year, with the normal being 12.30 inches. Normal June precipitation is 1.18 inches for Spokane and 1.78 inches for Coeur d’Alene.
We are in the midst of fire-weather season, but fortunately so far, it has been relatively quiet across the Inland Northwest. The National Interagency Fire Center offers an outlook for the upcoming summer months, and it looks like the only area that may see above-normal significant fire potential is north-central Washington. That particular area saw a drier than normal winter and spring, has a low snowpack, and severe drought conditions are expected to persist. Though significant fire potential should be normal across north Idaho, there is concern due to the present overall dryness of the area, and forecasters are calling for the potential for an extended fire season this year due to projected warm and dry conditions over the summer.
On June 6, an area of thunderstorms rolled through Lincoln County in Eastern Washington and produced several weak tornadoes. The storms were not of the supercell variety that often produce the destructive tornadoes of the Midwest, and the four confirmed tornadoes were given the weakest damage rating of EF-0 (on a scale of 0-5). Their lack of intensity, however, did not take away from their spectacular appearances. A full writeup and explanation of the storms, plus pictures can be seen at the Spokane National Weather Service Web site: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov /otx/photo_gallery/Jun6 _Creston_tornadoes.php.