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A fire burns in a forest full of green trees with white and grey smoking filling the top left of the photo.
Your guide to Idaho's wildfire season
From air quality concerns to evacuations, wildfires impact pretty much everyone. We've rounded up some resources to make sure you're prepared as we head into Idaho's wildfire season.

Lightning In Forecast Makes Northwest Fire Crews Wary

NWNews | By Chris Lehman,
Chris Lehman
Published August 22, 2013 at 4:06 PM MDT
Spc. Matthew Burnett, 115th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment. An Oregon Army National Guard Blackhawk helicopter prepares to dump a "Bambi" bucket of water on a fire line near The Dalles, Ore.

Weather forecasters are predicting more lightning throughout the Northwest over the next few days. That could make things tougher for fire fighters, who are already battling several large wildfires throughout the region.

John Saltenberger is a meteorologist with the Northwest Coordination Center in Portland. He says the storms moving across Oregon and Washington do contain rain. But he adds, "We're anticipating that the number of lightning strikes occurring, even with the rain, could pose a problem for firefighters to find all those fires and put them out before they have a chance of getting large and costly."

Saltenberger says the storminess could spill over into Idaho this weekend.

He says the Northwest has experienced a higher number of lightning strikes than normal this summer. In one 24-hour period earlier this month, he says forecasters measured more than 24,000 lightning bolts in Oregon and Washington.

Copyright 2021 Northwest News Network. To see more, visit Northwest News Network.

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Chris Lehman
Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.
See stories by Chris Lehman
Chris Lehman
Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.

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