FXUS66 KOTX 181232 AFDOTX Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Spokane WA 532 AM PDT Sat Jul 18 2026 .KEY MESSAGES... - Dry and breezy conditions across the region Saturday. - Dry conditions heading into next week, with temperatures pushing toward the 90s to near 100 by Tuesday. && .SYNOPSIS... Elevated to critical fire conditions expected Saturday with dry and breezy winds. Dry and warm into next week, with some areas pushing near 100 degrees by Tuesday. && .DISCUSSION... Saturday: Elevated to critical fire weather conditions are expected Saturday afternoon for much of the Inland northwest as an upper level low slides through southern British Columbia. This will bring widespread breezy west/southwest winds around 10-20 mph with gusts around 20-30 mph with relative humidity generally around 12-25%. Conditions are marginal for a Red Flag warning, but the best overlap of conditions will be on the eastern Waterville Plateau and the Colville Reservation. There will be locally critical conditions for the Columbia Basin and West Plains as well but have opted out of a Red Flag for now. A short fused Red Flag warning may be needed if conditions exceed expectations. Sunday through next Saturday: Confidence is high for a stretch of above normal temperatures in the 90s and 100s and dry conditions from Monday to Thursday. This will lead to widespread moderate and major HeatRisk. Heat products will likely be needed. The one uncertain factor is how much wildfire smoke will cool off the temperatures. This will be highly dependent on where any new fire starts occur and what the fire behavior will be which is outside our area of expertise. Conditions will be fairly dry in the afternoons with fairly light winds Sunday and beyond. Will have to monitor for lightning mid to late next week as a trough offshore and monsoon high brings in PWATs around 120-170% of normal. Confidence in the exact trough positioning is low at this point but this pattern appears favorable for more lightning. /DB && .AVIATION... 12Z TAFS: Southwesterly flow aloft will continue through the next 24 hours, bringing smoke from wildfires into eastern Washington and north Idaho. Smoke is bringing minor visibility reductions to 7-9SM around KGEG/KSFF/KDEW this morning with all sites remaining VFR. Models show improvement by the late morning on Saturday as southwest to west winds increase. FORECAST CONFIDENCE AND/OR ALTERNATE SCENARIOS: Moderate to high confidence in VFR conditions persisting for KGEG/KSFF through the period. ----------------------- 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 89 57 89 57 93 63 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Coeur d'Alene 89 57 88 59 93 65 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Pullman 86 52 85 53 90 57 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Lewiston 96 62 94 63 97 68 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Colville 88 52 91 54 94 60 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Sandpoint 87 54 86 55 91 60 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Kellogg 86 55 84 56 90 61 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Moses Lake 91 56 92 59 96 65 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Wenatchee 89 63 93 67 95 73 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 Omak 92 60 93 65 97 70 / 0 0 0 0 0 0 && .OTX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... WA...Air Quality Alert until 9 AM PDT Sunday for Moses Lake Area- Northeast Mountains-Spokane Area-Upper Columbia Basin- Washington Palouse. Red Flag Warning from noon today to 9 PM PDT this evening for Colville Reservation (Zone 702)-Waterville Plateau (Zone 706). ID...Air Quality Alert until noon PDT Monday for Central Panhandle Mountains-Coeur d'Alene Area-Idaho Palouse-Lewis and Southern Nez Perce Counties-Lewiston Area-Northern Panhandle. && $$