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IDAHO FALLS – The National Weather Service in Pocatello is issuing a flash flood watch for parts of eastern Idaho.
The flood watch is in effect for Wednesday afternoon and will extend into the early evening hours. It’s primarily focused on areas near the Wyoming border, including Island Park, Ashton, Driggs, Swan Valley and Montpelier. Communities inside the green area in the map below are included in the flood watch.
Meteorologist Andrew McKaughan tells EastIdahoNews.com the flash flood watch is a result of “an unusually moist air mass” in that region.
“Any thunderstorms that develop are going to be very efficient rainfall producers,” McKaughan says, explaining that these areas could get “a decent amount of rainfall in a short amount of time.”
The exact amount is hard to say, but McKaughan isn’t predicting anything major — perhaps one to two inches at the most.
“Not everyone is going to see those stronger storms, but the areas that do could easily get half an inch to an inch of rain in a very short period of time … or more, depending on how things play out,” he says.
This is the third flash flood watch in eastern Idaho in the last week. A similar event happened in a concentrated area of Pocatello on Thursday, July 16. Multiple slow-moving storms resulted in several inches of rain near South 5th Avenue. The Pocatello bureau issued another flood watch for the Driggs area on Friday.
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Overall, McKaughan says there will be widespread precipitation throughout eastern Idaho on Wednesday. In general, there is a 40-70% chance of rain.
Locals will get some relief from the extreme heat over the last week. Daytime temperatures in the upper 80s are likely for Wednesday.
Although there may be lingering cloud cover on Thursday, McKaughan says temperatures are expected to tick back up into the 90s by Friday and remain there into the weekend.
For the latest conditions and a complete seven-day forecast in your area, click here.
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