A summary of Friday’s extreme weather was issued by the National Weather Service after the stormy weather subsided late that evening. Many counties in Washington were declared a state of emergency following the storm. Some counties skipped out, but still had their share of damage.

Trained weather spotters had a part in reporting what happening weather-wise in the area. Near Asotin, a spotter says heavy rain caused water to run down the roadway and pea-sized hail was coming down in the area southwest of Asotin.

Another spotter says dime-sized hail was coming down at the Anatone Post Office. Heavy rain was included in that report as well. 

Public reports near Lewiston say several trees caused damage to an outbuilding roof while penny-sized hail and heavy rain fell.

In Nez Perze, a trained spotter at the Valley Gas in Lapwai reported hail slightly larger than a ping bong ball. Nez Perce Tribal Police was able to confirm that size description with a report of their own.

Another set of thunderstorms is predicted to sweep through the Inland Northwest overnight and through Friday and it's expected to pack a wallop. The National Weather Service is preparing for an increased risk for the region with stormy weather producing strong thunderstorms and heavy rainfall.

The storms will travel over the basin and through the Cascades this evening and arrive in the Spokane area by late Friday morning.

The NWS says a “negative tilt trough” is pushing into the the region from the southwest. It will combine with moist and unstable air producing large hail, damaging winds and very heavy rains.

Flooding is also a possibility due to the precipitation. A flash flood watch was issued by the NWS Spokane office for numerous counties in both Idaho and Washington. It’s in effect Thursday night through Friday and could create urban flooding, increased water levels in small streams, landslides or debris flows.

Hypothetically speaking, if a nearby star were to go supernova, it could eventually reach our blue planet and rip apart our atmosphere. Complex life would cease to exist. That scenario is unlikely says Dr. Dirk Schulze-Makuch, professor of astrobiology at Washington State University. That’s one of nine of possible ways Earth could meet its doom, and there’s only so much we can do about it.

His new book, “Megacatastrophes!”, co-written with David Darling, explores scientific realities we face and how we can simply be aware of them.

First and foremost, Schulze-Makuch and Darling are scientists. They ignore the pop culture paranoia of zombie apocalypse and the ominous Mayan calender. Schulze-Makuch even says that scenario is nonsense. The two writers discuss the realistic scenarios humans face from asteroid impacts, nano-technology to global pandemic.

“I’m not the prophet,” Schulze-Makuch said. “We look at different scenarios and we basically prioritize how dangerous it is and how disastrous it would be.”

Would the scenario result in a million dead or even a billion dead? Schulze-Makuch says a pandemic tops the list with diseases like the Spanish Flu or Black Death. With passenger flights crossing oceans and country borders, disease has no boundaries.