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Weather System Brings Lightning, Rain Sprinkles To Region This Morning

Flickr/Creative Commons/Lodian

A summer thunderstorm is expected to roll through the region tonight and tomorrow morning, though not a storm of the intensity that lit up the area last week.

National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Carter says storms moving north from central Oregon should enter eastern Washington around midnight, bringing some lightning.

“These thunderstorms tonight will be what we call dry thunderstorms. They may have a few raindrops in them but, for the most part, they won’t be raining enough to put out any ignitions that may occur if the lightning does occur," Carter said.

The worry is that the lightning will ignite dry timber and brush and brisk winds tomorrow will spread embers and start new fires.

Carter expects the storm will affect mostly Washington.

“Right now, we’re targeting the central basin, east of the Cascades, and up in the northern mountains of Washington and a little bit of the northern Idaho panhandle, near the Canadian border, as far as any thunderstorms are concerned. And they should move off by about 8 o’clock in the morning and we’ll have some partly cloudy skies and there will be a little rain along the Cascades as the cold front moves into the region, bringing the breezes," Carter said.

That respite will be brief, though, as the weekend looks to be hot and dry with temperatures in the 80s and 90s until mid-week.