Salmo Ski Area snow report

056 FXUS66 KOTX 110532 AFDOTX Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Spokane WA 1032 PM PDT Fri Jul 10 2026 .KEY MESSAGES... - Critical fire weather conditions across portions of central WA through this weekend, particularly Okanogan Valley. - Elevated fire weather conditions continue elsewhere this weekend. - Warming trend early next week. && .SYNOPSIS... Strong ridging across the west-central US will lead to continued dry weather, breezy winds, and low humidity. Elevated to critical fire weather conditions will persist through this weekend, with warm to hot temperatures across the Inland Northwest into next week. && .DISCUSSION... Saturday through Monday: An increasingly positively tilted upper level trough will gradually slide inland from the Pacific NW coast across southern British Columbia and into north-central Canada through the period. Meanwhile, strong monsoonal ridging across the west-central CONUS will remain locked in place. This will lead to continued dry weather with above normal daytime temperatures. A leading weak shortwave ejecting out ahead of the Pacific trough will first bring a dry cold front through the Inland NW overnight into Saturday morning. As this front interacts with a slightly elevated PWAT anomaly (~125%) across extreme eastern WA and the ID Panhandle, cannot rule out some isolated dry thunderstorms or sprinkles. Plenty of sub- cloud dry air in place should prevent most, if not all precipitation from reaching the ground. While chances for thunder are low (5-15%), will need to monitor closely as elevated to critical fire weather conditions are expected for the upcoming day Saturday. The dry cold frontal passage will lead to quick drying of the environment in the morning and early afternoon, while the PDX- GPI pressure gradient steadily increases to 7-8mb through the day. Resultant breezy winds will lead to Red Flag conditions for portions of central Washington as outlined below. Of particular concern is Okanogan Valley, where channeling of southerly winds will combine with upvalley/upslope effects to locally enhance winds Saturday afternoon. Elsewhere outside of the RFW area, elevated fire weather conditions will exist with seasonably low RHs and light to modest southwesterly breezes. Sunday, the increased influence of the Pacific trough will allow for added cloud cover, which will help shave several degrees off daytime temperatures compared to the past several days. Winds will also be lighter compared to Saturday, though RHs will remain quite low, so elevated fire weather concerns remain. The southerly component to the low-level flow will again create a more hazardous fire weather setup in Okanogan Valley, with additional RFWs for the zone not out of the question with future updates. Winds further lighten for Monday, though daytime temperatures will gain a few degrees while RHs struggle to improve. While critical fire weather conditions are not expected at this time, elevated concerns remain across portions of central Washington. Tuesday through Friday: The Pacific troughing will gradually weaken next week, with influence from the monsoonal ridge across the central CONUS increasing across the Inland NW. Will continue to monitor the potential for thunderstorms through Wednesday as global ensembles continue to advertise PWAT anomalies climbing to 125-175% across SE Washington and the southern ID Panhandle. Otherwise, daytime highs will run solidly 5-10 degrees above normal for mid-July through at least the first half of the week. 25th-75th quartile Max-T spread from the LREF noticeably increases to near 15F beyond Wednesday as the ensembles struggle with the finer scale evolution of the longwave pattern across the Pacific and western CONUS. /PMP && .AVIATION... 06Z TAFs: Area-wide VFR will prevail through the 06z TAF cycle with a westerly component to the winds at the TAF sites. There is a low (5-15%) chance for elevated showers and thunderstorms across far eastern WA and the ID Panhandle (KGEG/KSFF/KCOE/KPUW) overnight into Saturday morning, mainly between 06z-12z. Confidence remains too low to include any TEMPOS/PROB30s with the 06z TAFs. Guidance indicates any activity that forms will track generally northward in this timeframe. Winds will become breezy on Saturday with gusts to 25kts possible across most of the region. Areas north of KMWH may see gusts 30-35kts. FORECAST CONFIDENCE AND/OR ALTERNATE SCENARIOS: High confidence for VFR conditions regionwide. Low confidence in thunderstorms through early Saturday. ----------------------- 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 59 88 59 82 53 91 / 20 0 0 0 0 0 Coeur d`Alene 60 87 61 81 57 90 / 20 0 0 0 0 0 Pullman 53 85 54 79 51 88 / 10 0 0 0 0 0 Lewiston 62 95 64 88 61 95 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Colville 55 87 56 83 49 90 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Sandpoint 58 86 58 79 54 89 / 20 0 0 0 0 0 Kellogg 58 86 58 79 56 89 / 20 0 0 0 0 0 Moses Lake 58 90 58 86 54 92 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Wenatchee 63 87 62 84 60 91 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Omak 60 89 59 87 55 92 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 && .OTX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... WA...Red Flag Warning from noon to 11 PM PDT Saturday for Waterville Plateau (Zone 706)-Western Columbia Basin (Zone 707). Red Flag Warning from noon to 9 PM PDT Saturday for Colville Reservation (Zone 702)-Okanogan Valley (Zone 703). ID...None. && $$