Area forecast discussion
National Weather Service Spokane Washington
1118 am PDT Wed Jun 19 2013
Synopsis...
a band of moderate rain will continue over the Idaho Panhandle
and extreme eastern Washington today. Thursday will be another
cool and rainy day for much of the Idaho Panhandle and northeast
Washington. The rain will gradually subside on Friday with a
drying and warming trend expected this weekend. Wetter and cooler
weather will return early next week.
&&
Discussion...
..today and tomorrow will bring a prolonged period of light to
moderate rain over the Idaho Panhandle...
As of 9 am, the regional radar mosaic showed a couple bands of
light to moderate rain over the Pacific northwest. The first band
was stalled over the Idaho Panhandle and is a remnant of a band
that brought a swath of 0.25 to 1.00 inches of rain to the
Panhandle early this morning. This band over the Panhandle will
slowly pivot north and east today. It looks like the heaviest
rainfall rates occurred around sunrise, but periods of light to
moderate rain will persist today and through the night for the
Panhandle. Another band of rain was located over east central
Oregon drifting slowly to the north. By this evening, this Oregon
precipitation band will move into the southern and central
Panhandle as the upper trough axis migrates northeast. By Thursday
morning, a 500mb low is expected to stall over far north Idaho or
northwest Montana and potentially linger over the region through Friday.
The upper low is expected to weaken (or fill) a bit Thursday night
into Friday so the overall organization of the deformation band
should decrease. This should yield lighter precipitation rates
Thursday night into Friday. All told, it still looks like areas
around Bonners Ferry, Priest Lake, Metaline Falls, and Sandpoint
will receive 2 inches or more of rain by Friday. There may be a
pretty tight gradient in precipitation totals with this event with
the Idaho Panhandle and far northeast Washington receiving the
lion's share. The Columbia Basin, West Plains and western portions
of the Palouse may get less than a quarter of an inch with this
multi-day precipitation event.
Calls have been made to law enforcement in Bonner and boundary
counties. As of 830 am, rises on creeks and small streams were
reported, but there was no flooding. A small steam Flood Advisory
is in effect today for a good portion of Boundary County where
radar precipitation estimates were the greatest this morning.
Fortunately, base flows were low heading into this event. Rain
rates will also not be especially high with this mainly stratiform
event. We will continue to monitor gages and communicate with
local officials as far as creeks and small streams are concerned.
A public information statement will issued shortly highlighting
regional rain totals thus far. Look for a headline on the top of
the National Weather Service Spokane website. /Gkoch
&&
Aviation...
18z tafs: a cloudy and showery day is in store for eastern
Washington and northern Idaho. The most organized band of rain
through this afternoon will be oriented over the Colville, Bonners
Ferry and Sandpoint areas in far northeast Washington and the Idaho
Panhandle. Another surge of widespread rain will likely come up from
up from northeast Oregon this evening and bring a good chance of
steady rain to Lewiston, Pullman, Spokane and Coeur D'Alene through
the night. Look for ceilings to lift a bit this afternoon at kgeg,
ksff, kcoe, and kpuw only to have cigs fall again tonight with the
arrival of more widespread rain. Localized windy conditions will
develop at Wenatchee late this afternoon and persist through late
evening with gusts approaching 30kts. The GFS MOS guidance looks a
bit high and followed raw guidance from the NAM and NAM MOS. /Gkoch
&&
Preliminary point temps/pops...
Spokane 56 46 55 45 61 46 / 100 80 80 60 50 20
Coeur D'Alene 52 46 54 43 60 45 / 100 100 90 70 60 40
Pullman 52 45 56 42 60 43 / 100 80 60 50 50 50
Lewiston 58 49 64 46 67 50 / 100 80 60 30 50 40
Colville 61 51 57 47 67 45 / 100 100 100 90 50 20
Sandpoint 53 47 53 44 60 43 / 100 100 100 90 60 40
Kellogg 49 44 51 41 57 44 / 100 100 100 70 70 60
Moses Lake 68 52 65 49 69 50 / 40 50 50 30 30 10
Wenatchee 66 52 64 52 68 54 / 40 60 60 40 30 10
Omak 65 51 64 50 69 49 / 50 80 80 60 50 10
&&
Otx watches/warnings/advisories...
Idaho...none.
Washington...none.
&&
$$
