Mother Nature gets tough with the palouse

Skywatchers have been treated to a dazzling though unusual display of evening fireworks every night for more than the past week.

“How many times here in the northwest have we seen this many consecutive days of lightning?” asked Dan Harwood, a resident of north Whitman County and coordinator of the Palouse-Rock Lake Conservation District.

Along with the lightning have come freak bursts of severe weather.

Tuesday night saw a torrential downpour in the northern part of the county.

Harwood said he had just crested Malden Hill on his way to Spokane Tuesday night when he saw a sky filled with water in front of him to the east.

Steve Henning at Thornton said the unusual storm Tuesday night dropped 2.63 inches of rain in his rain gauge during a 12 hour period as it moved west from Idaho.

“Might be time to start farming rice,” he said.

The storm knocked over large swaths of Henning’s field, as it did in fields all around north central Whitman County. Harwood said he talked to several farmers who reported grain on the ground.

“It’s big, it’s heavy. It’s a good crop that got hit last night,” he said. “Mother Nature is queen.”

Whitman County road crews spent Tuesday clearing mud off roadways in the north district. One road near Thornton developed a large ditch running right down its middle from the gully washer.

Tuesday’s event followed a crazy storm that hit the Colfax area early Sunday morning.

The thunderstorm dumped water and mud from the east hill onto Clay Street. The water flooded the street and left mud and debris in yards. Vehicles parked along Clay had a high water mark as high as the hubs in wheels.

The street was blocked off while city crew members worked to open drains and clear the mud from the street. Six fire volunteers also assisted at the scene, according to City Administrator Carl Thompson.

Monday morning’s reading on the NRCS gauge at Colfax totaled .42 of an inch. The reading was the first from the entire weekend, but most of the rainfall came in a short time as part of the thunder storm which rocked the Colfax area starting shortly after 4 a.m.

Water and mud came off the hill and also took a toll on Park Street. The water also flooded a block west of the Sumner Kestrel area.

Add that to the streaks of high-speed wind that tore through the Clear Creek and Steptoe areas last week, downing trees in yards and even blocking the Palouse Highway.

“We’re in an unusual pattern for July, there’s no question about that,” said John Livingston, meteorologist-in-charge for the National Weather Service in Spokane.

A low pressure area on the Washington coast is pushing moist, unstable air into eastern Washington. As it mixes with hot temperatures, the system will continue to shoot lightning streaks across the sky into the weekend, tapering off Sunday, said Livingston.

The lightning has held, he said, because of the typically static weather patterns in eastern Washington during July.

While he admitted he is not an expert in the Mayan doomsday prophecy that reportedly has the world ending this year, Livingston advised people to take precautions during the severe weather. Stay covered and don’t get caught standing in a puddle during a lightning storm.

He added one more thing:

“You got your arc built?” asked Livingston.