Whitewater Ski Resort Snow Report

712 FXUS66 KOTX 250703 AFDOTX Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Spokane WA 1203 AM PDT Tue Aug 25 2026 .KEY MESSAGES... - Minor to moderate heatrisk Tuesday and Wednesday with highs in the mid to upper 90s. - Breezy winds Wednesday into Thursday with elevated fire weather conditions. - Cooler temperatures over the weekend with the potential for mountain showers. && .SYNOPSIS... Much warmer temperatures Tuesday into Wednesday with highs up into the mid to upper 90s. The heat begins to break down Wednesday into Thursday with an increasing risk for breezy winds and thunderstorms primarily over the mountains. Temperatures cool below normal for the weekend with light showers possible over the mountains. && .DISCUSSION... Today: The hottest day of the week will be this afternoon with highs into the mid to upper 90s regionwide. The hottest temperatures will be felt in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley where temperatures are expected to top out between 100-103 degrees. A heat advisory is in effect starting at noon today and will continue through Wednesday. The hot and dry conditions won`t do anything to curb fire activity with the active fires in the Cascades. The Little Giant Fire and Sinlahekin Fire were active on Monday, and the hotter, drier weather will only increase the potential for more activity today. Expect increased smoke production, but winds aloft from the east will generally transport this smoke into western Washington. Tonight through Thursday night: A trough of lower pressure will dig across the eastern Pacific and displace the ridge of high pressure eastward over this period. The displacement will be more gradual on Wednesday and this will result in a push of marine air through the Cascade gaps. The result of this will be increased westerly winds through the Kititas Valley, the Wenatchee River Valley, and out over the far western Columbia Basin. The marine layer looks to remain below 4,000 ft MSL through at least mid afternoon on Wednesday. It does deepen more so heading into the evening hours up to around 5,000 ft AGL. That will be fairly late in the day for much if any of that cooler marine air to spill through with much impact on high temperatures. Thus, Wednesday looks to be another hot, dry day, but also with winds a bit breezier near the Cascades. This combination will result in an elevated fire weather situation. The potential for convection carries a good amount of uncertainty. The latest convective allowing models are hinting at a better potential for convection developing over the Northeast Blue Mountains that drifts off to the northeast toward Lewiston and Pullman/Moscow for this evening. Forcing aloft is rather weak and the question will be if convection will be able to punch through a considerable amount of CIN in place of around 50 J/kg. That may be too much negative energy to overcome for air parcels to reach their Level of Free Convection late this afternoon into this evening. There is a better chance over the mountains of northeast Washington and over the Idaho Panhandle on Wednesday. The trough will be in closer proximity with a weak shortwave disturbance supplying at least weak synoptic sale lift. The timing of the wave looks to be in the afternoon with around 500-1000 J/kg of surface based CAPE, but there will also be 50-80 J/kg of CIN as well. Thunderstorm coverage is expected to be isolated without good alignment of instability with forcing. Any convection that is able to break through the cap will be capable of developing quickly. Inverted-V sounding profiles would support strong outflow winds, and potentially microbursts. A cold front sweeps across on Thursday and this will tighten up the pressure gradient with gusty westerly winds by the afternoon. Sustained winds of 15-25 mph with gusts of up to 30-40 mph is expected. Temperatures will be 9-12 degrees cooler, but still dry and the combination of stronger winds with minimum relative humidity down to between 20-25% will be enough for elevated to locally critical fire weather conditions. Convection on Thursday is expected occur primarily north and east of the region in BC and Montana respectively. Friday through Tuesday: The far extended portion of the forecast will feature cooler temperatures closer to seasonal normals. Not much moisture to speak of, but a disturbance swinging through will bring a 15-30% chance for showers mainly over the mountains. There will also be a 20% chance for thunderstorms near the Canadian border for Saturday afternoon. Winds will be breezy at times, but the cooler temperatures looks to keep relative humidity levels above critical thresholds. /SVH && .AVIATION... 06Z TAFs: VFR conditions expected for much of the region. The caveat will be smoke impacts from fires burning in the Cascades, notably the Little Giant Fire. Smoke will settle into the valleys as inversions set up tonight. Drainage winds is expected to push some of this smoke into KEAT for at least the morning hours. A northeast gradient for Tuesday morning will also bring northeast winds of 10-15 kts at KCOE and KPUW between 14-20Z. There is a 15% chance for thunderstorms to develop over the Northeast Blue Mountains by the late afternoon on Tuesday (after 21Z). Afternoon convection on Tuesday looks to weaken quickly as it moves of the higher terrain and unlikely to be a threat to KLWS, but expect towering cumulus to be in the area. FORECAST CONFIDENCE AND/OR ALTERNATE SCENARIOS: High confidence in VFR conditions for all terminals apart from EAT. A stronger northwest drainage flow than expected into EAT will bring a better potential for visibility below 6SM and IFR to MVFR conditions for Tuesday morning. /SVH ----------------------- Confidence descriptors: Low - Less than a 30 percent chance Moderate - 30 to 70 percent chance High - Greater than a 70 percent chance For additional probabilistic information for NWS Spokane airports, please refer to the Aviation Dashboard on our webpage: https:/www.weather.gov/otx/avndashboard && .Preliminary Point Temps/PoPs... Spokane 95 59 93 59 84 52 / 0 0 10 0 0 0 Coeur d`Alene 95 61 94 61 84 52 / 0 0 10 0 0 0 Pullman 95 54 91 52 81 46 / 0 10 10 0 0 0 Lewiston 100 66 98 66 88 58 / 0 10 10 0 0 0 Colville 92 49 93 49 85 43 / 0 0 10 0 0 0 Sandpoint 91 56 92 56 83 47 / 0 0 20 20 0 0 Kellogg 94 57 94 57 82 51 / 0 0 20 20 0 0 Moses Lake 96 57 93 57 85 50 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Wenatchee 94 67 94 65 83 60 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Omak 94 62 95 60 86 51 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 && .OTX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... WA...Heat Advisory from noon today to 9 PM PDT Wednesday for Lower Garfield and Asotin Counties. Air Quality Alert until noon PDT Thursday for Central Chelan County-Okanogan Highlands-Okanogan Valley-Upper Columbia Basin-Waterville Plateau-Wenatchee Area-Western Chelan County-Western Okanogan County. ID...Heat Advisory from noon today to 9 PM PDT Wednesday for Lewiston Area. && $$