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Unstable Weather In The Inland Northwest Takes The Edge Off Intense Heat

Courtesy of National Weather Service

The Inland Northwest’s week of intense heat is giving way to a new weather pattern and at least slightly cooler temperatures.

Much of the region faces at least a slight chance of thundershowers today and temperatures in double, not triple, digits. Spokane’s forecast high is 96, 96 in Coeur d’Alene, 95 in Sandpoint.

But the new weather is a mixed bag. The thundershowers aren’t expected to bring much rain and any lightning could spark fires, says National Weather Spokane meteorologist Laurie Nisbet.

“We have really dried out our fuels, so dry conditions continue and any new fires, there’s the danger of, the fuels are so dried and cured that fire could be carried along with the dried fuels in the region," she said.

And Nisbet says there’s one other factor that won’t help with that.

“Starting Friday through the weekend, especially for the Cascade gaps, the Columbia Basin and into the Palouse and the Spokane area, I would say you’ll see afternoon winds, 10-15 miles an hour with gusts of up to 25," she said.

Nisbet and her colleagues predict high temperatures in the mid-to-upper 90s for the Fourth of July weekend, gradually falling even more into the first part of next week.