Good news, Boise! Late-night thunderstorm brought rain. The bad news? It wasn’t much.
A late-night thunderstorm brought some much-needed rain to Boise overnight, but weather experts say the area is still far from its normal precipitation totals for July.
National Weather Service meteorologist Les Colin said in a phone interview that the storm moved through Boise between midnight and 1 a.m. Wednesday, with the heaviest rain concentrated in the southeast corner of the city. There, some residents reported as much as half an inch of heavy rain, Colin said.
The rest of the Treasure Valley wasn’t as lucky. Colin said the storm missed Canyon and west Ada counties, and the precipitation tapered off as the storm moved over the Boise mountains. At the National Weather Service office near the Boise Airport, officials recorded less than one-tenth of an inch of rain (0.06). Elsewhere in Boise, residents reported between .15 and .2 inches of precipitation.
Colin said it’s the first rain Boise has had in nearly two weeks. On July 1, another storm dropped about .02 inches of rain in the area. That brings the average rainfall total for the month to 0.08 inches as measured at the NWS office. That’s less than half the normal July total of .21 inches.
The precipitation comes as all of Idaho is experiencing drought conditions. The U.S. Drought Monitor on Wednesday showed Ada County under moderate drought, while other parts of Southwest Idaho are in severe drought. Some parts of the state are in extreme or exceptional drought.
Colin said the thunderstorm didn’t appear to spark any new wildfires in Idaho. Currently there are more than a dozen wildfires burning in Idaho, most of them in North or Central Idaho.
