Windy conditions will continue through evening

Windy conditions will continue through this evening as many areas of the Inland Northwest experience power outages. Avista reports the weather is the main cause of some power outages in the region because of the wind knocking tree branches onto power lines. A major outage knocked out the power for nearly 1,400 customers in the Palouse area because of equipment failure. Due to the extended dry period in the region, layers of dust mixed with falling rain acted as a conduit. Avista officials said the rural power outages are not making it easy for servicemen to find the cause of the outages. In order to restore the power, servicemen have to find the exact location on the line. More power outages are being reported in Spokane, Kootenai and Stevens counties in Washington and Idaho, but the causes of some of those outages are still under investigation. Wind speeds are expected to increase to 25-35 mph through tonight. Some of the biggest gusts swept through Spokane and Pullman. The National Weather Service reports a gust of 47 mph was recorded at Pullman Airport and a 40 mph gust at Felts Field. Coeur d’Alene and Lewiston airports both experienced gusts of 43 mph.