Washington Cascades hit with hundreds of lightning strikes; 12 new fires started

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Washington Cascades were hit with approximately 262 lightning strikes between Tuesday and Wednesday morning, potentially starting a chain of new wildfires in the area.

The Central Washington Interagency Communications Center reported 12 new fires in the Washington Cascades Wednesday morning. However, officials can’t confirm if the fires were caused by lightning at this time, Washington State Department of Natural Resources spokesperson Thomas Kyle-Milward told KOIN 6 News.

“Most of the starts reported thus far are located across the eastern slopes of the Central Cascades in Chelan, Kittitas, and Yakima counties,” Kyle-Milward said. “Official causes are unknown at this time and will remain that way until fire investigations are concluded, but they certainly occurred in areas in which there were lightning strikes.”

KOIN 6 Meteorologist Kelley Bayern reports that a flurry of those strikes hit Washington between 7 and 10 a.m. Wednesday. Kyle-Milward said that 58 of these strikes were “positive lightning” — less-common, more-powerful bolts that are more likely to start fires. The National Weather Service states that “positive lightning” makes up less than 5% of all recorded strikes.

“Despite a significantly lower rate of occurrence, positive lightning is particularly dangerous for several reasons,” the NWS states. “Since it originates in the upper levels of a storm, the amount of air it must burn through to reach the ground is usually much greater. Therefore, its electric field typically is much stronger than a negative strike. Its flash duration is longer, and its peak charge and potential can be ten times greater than a negative strike; as much as 300,000 amperes and 1 billion volts!” 

Kyle-Milward said that the fires appear calm at this time. However, the wildfires may grow if the weather changes. The Eastern slopes of the Washington Cascades are in a moderate state of drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

“It does not appear that any fires are spreading quickly at the moment, but it's something we're continuing to monitor as the wind picks up this afternoon,” he said.

There is a slight chance for thunderstorms to continue in Eastern Washington and Oregon throughout the day. Isolated winds stronger than 39 mph are forecast for gaps in the Cascade in Eastern Washington.