Storms continue to blow over basin

MOSES LAKE - Despite wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour Sunday night - and warnings for similar storms last night - very little damage was reported around Grant and Adams counties.

Ephrata saw the fastest winds, going from 32 miles per hour and gusting up to 40, whereas Moses Lake saw steady 36 mile-per-hour gusts.

Othello saw winds steady at 18 miles per hour, while reaching up to 26 Sunday night.

"It's possible that the area might have gotten 50 mile per hour gusts somewhere off our reading stations, but in general it was 30-40 miles per hour," National Weather Service Meteorologist Matt Fugazzi said.

And though electrical storms moved through the area Sunday night, not much rain was dumped.

The front eventually moved north through Omak and Oroville and into Canada, Fugazzi said.

Of the few lightning-related fires that were reported in the area, only an approximate 100-acre grass and brush fire outside Wilson Creek stuck out as the most damaging.

And while lightning bolts were prominent throughout the night sky, thunderclaps were absent from most areas, as was much of the rainfall.

Fugazzi said that there's an atmospheric phenomenon that can bend the soundwaves of thunder.

"It's quite possible, especially at night, that you'll see the lightning but not hear the thunder," he said.

As for the lack of rainfall in the area, Fugazzi said the basin was, by and large, on the outskirts of the cluster of storms that moved through. Most precipitation comes from the core of storms.

"They came very close to Moses Lake, but the difference between getting nothing and getting a gully washer can only be a few miles," he said.