Nighthawk, Washington

Nighthawk is an unincorporated community on the Similkameen River in Okanogan County, Washington, United States. It was named for a nearby (and now-closed) mine.^[2] Another source says that it was named after the nighthawks common to the area.^[3]

Nighthawk
Unincorporated community
The Similkameen River a few miles from Nighthawk
Nighthawk Location of Nighthawk in Washington
Coordinates: 48°58′00″N 119°38′31″W[1]
Country	United States
State	Washington
County	Okanogan
Platted	1903
Elevation [1]	1,155 ft (352 m)
Time zone	UTC-8 (Pacific (PST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-7 (PDT)
GNIS feature ID	1523657[1]

History

Despite European settlers being in the area as far back as in the 1860s, the town was officially platted in 1903 by the Nighthawk Reality Co.^[4]

By 1950 with the end of mining in the area ending, the community lost its prominence and thus started to decline.^[5]

Description

Nighthawk is a (mostly former) logging area along Loomis–Oroville Highway west-northwest of Oroville, Washington. Just north of Nighthawk is the Nighthawk–Chopaka Border Crossing, a 9 am – 5 pm Canada–US border crossing. Nighthawk is located along the former Great Northern Railroad (now BNSF). The town of Nighthawk used to be a booming mine town at the turn of the 20th century with hotels and a burlesque house, but now only has a population of about five people.

The border crossing is usually known as "the Nighthawk crossing" on the Canadian side, though the official name of the Canadian-side locality is Chopaka.

Climate

Climate data for Osoyoos West, BC 1981–2010 (metric units) about 14 km NE of Nighthawk
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C	2.0	5.9	12.5	17.9	22.1	25.7	29.4	29.1	23.8	15.8	7.1	1.6	16.1
Average mean °C	−0.7	1.6	6.6	11.1	15.2	18.7	21.9	21.4	16.5	10.0	3.7	−0.9	10.4
Average low °C	−3.4	−2.7	0.5	4.2	8.2	11.7	14.2	13.6	9.0	4.2	0.3	−3.4	4.7
Precipitation (cm)	2.88	2.23	2.40	2.42	3.71	4.17	2.46	1.73	1.49	1.86	3.38	3.58	32.32
Snowfall (cm)	14.6	4.6	1.7	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	5.7	17.0	43.8
Source: Environment Canada http://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_normals/results_1981_2010_e.html?stnID=1043&autofwd=1

Climate data for Osoyoos West, BC 1981–2010 (English units) about 9 miles NE of Nighthawk
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °F	35.6	42.6	54.5	64.2	71.8	78.3	84.9	84.4	74.8	60.4	44.8	34.9	61.0
Average mean °F	30.7	34.9	43.9	52.0	59.4	65.7	71.4	70.5	61.7	50.0	38.7	30.4	50.7
Average low °F	25.9	27.1	32.9	39.6	46.8	53.1	57.6	56.5	48.2	39.6	32.5	25.9	40.5
Precipitation (in)	1.13	0.88	0.94	0.95	1.46	1.64	0.97	0.68	0.59	0.73	1.33	1.41	12.72
Snowfall (in)	5.7	1.8	0.7	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	2.2	6.7	17.2
Source: Environment Canada http://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_normals/results_1981_2010_e.html?stnID=1043&autofwd=1