Tuesday's showers didn't put a big dent in fire danger, said an Idaho Department of Lands fire official, who expects wildfires to pop up in the panhandle in the next couple of weeks.

"I don't think the moisture we received will make any type of long-term impact," said Shane O'Shea, assistant fire warden for the Mica Supervisory Area Office. "If anything, it's going to prolong any type of big fires for maybe a week. Fuels are going to respond quite quickly if the temperature climbs back up."

Lightning earlier in the week didn't improve the situation, either.

IDL responded to four calls of lightning strikes on Tuesday, O'Shea said, with one in the Twin Lakes drainage producing a fire that firefighters quickly extinguished.

Lightning strikes tend to start fires in the hollows of trees, O'Shea said. As the weather warms, the flames can spread to grass below.

"What we anticipate is the precipitation is going to have some of these lightning strikes specifically in a single tree, have it lay low for a few days and in two to three days, as the weather gets warmer and drier, the fire to pop up then," he said.

The recent fires in southern and central Idaho are harbingers of North Idaho lighting up, as well, O'Shea added.

"We're just waiting and anticipating when it hits our place," he said.

The typical cautions for the public still apply: No unattended camp fires, keep lawns manicured and stack firewood at a distance from the home.

Glenn Lauper, deputy fire chief with Coeur d'Alene Fire District, supported the likelihood of fire to come.

"We are concerned," Lauper said. "We will be concerned until it starts raining nonstop."

The district is prepared for wildfires, he said. Crews have been taking special precautions, he said, like visiting areas with expansive vistas where they can spot something burning.

"If they see anything that looks like a fire, call 9-1-1 immediately," he said of how residents can help. "The faster we can get notified, the quicker we'll get there, the smaller the fire will be."

He added that folks should prepare to leave their homes in case of a wildfire, with prescriptions and necessities ready to grab.

"We ramp up the (warning) messages, if we get really dry again," Lauper said. "Which could be in a week."

O'Shea added that finally the entire IDL Mica Office wildfire crew is back home, after helping respond to blazes in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, all now under control.

The crew is fully prepared to tackle fires here, O'Shea said.

"With everybody being out on large scale incidents across the West, our crews have seen extreme fire behavior," he said. "They've been put to the test already this year. They're ready to go."