Fire Weather Conditions in the Northwest U.S.; Heavy Rain in the West and South-central U.S.

Extreme heat is waning over the Pacific Northwest. Dry, gusty winds, and isolated dry thunderstorms will bring critical fire weather to the Pacific Northwest and Intermountain West. Heavy rain and thunderstorms continue across portions of the Great Basin, Rockies, and central/southern Plains into the Ozarks. An atmospheric river will bring heavy rain and strong winds to southwest Alaska. Read More >

Background

The lightning images below are updated daily around 7:30–8:30 AM and contain 24-h accumulations of lightning ending at 6 am MDT (5 am MST) each day. There are two sets of images for (1) NLDN cloud-to-ground flashes only and (2) GOES-East Lightning Mapper (GLM) cloud flash points. Option #1 only represents cloud-to-ground lightning flashes, and is based on a surface detection network. Option #2 does not discriminate between cloud-to-ground versus in-cloud flashes (i.e., it represents the total lightning) and is based on satellite. In-cloud lightning flashes can comprise 60–90% of the total lightning (i.e., most lightning does not reach the ground). Satellite-based lightning detection also does not depict the exact location where the flash occurred because of an issue known as "parallax." Mouse over each day to view the 24-h cumulative lightning flash maps. Printable versions are at the bottom of each of the three map segments.