Severe weather in the Northwest

[Rebekah LaBar]

Anybody care to tell me what this foreign lingo is supposed to mean: SPC Severe Thunderstorm Watch 364 has been issued for parts of WA, OR, and ID. http://spc.noaa.gov/products/watch/ww0364.html Lol...it's one of those all too rare days in these parts!

Warm, somewhat moist (Tds in the upper 40s, lower 50s) air is moving east over the Cascades. Shear looks pretty good for this area and there are already a few storms down near The Dalles and La Grande (1" hail reported).

Here's Pendleton's radar: http://radar.weather.gov/ridge/radar.php?r...101111&loop=yes

Here's a visible satellite loop centered on WA: http://weather.cod.edu/analysis/loops/satl...r.pl?Washington

I'm in Ellensburg, where I-82 meets I-90 (in the center of WA), and the clouds are starting to move in from the south. We don't get very many (even weak) thunderstorms around here, so needless to say the watch box and increasing clouds are enough to get people excited.

Any thoughts from the more educated/advanced Stormtrackers out there?

 

[Rob Satkus]

Any thoughts from the more educated/advanced Stormtrackers out there?
[/b]

Not sure if I qualify, but my thoughts are this: Here I am in the middle of "chase alley" in mid May and I would rather be in Washington state. Or maybe in a coma.

Rob "Fabunni Mahari" Satkus

 

[Peter Wharton]

I'd say you're one of the lucky spots in the States right now - I've just spent the past 9 days in the Southern US sightseeing and watching sunny skies, in the most "active" part of the season, and am about to go back to New Zealand on Monday. Good luck with your severe thunderstorm watch (did have an active first few days with a couple of tornadoes in SE Oklahoma and NW Texas, but expected more).

Cheers, Peter

 

[Carrie Halliday]

Anybody care to tell me what this foreign lingo is supposed to mean: SPC Severe Thunderstorm Watch 364 has been issued for parts of WA, OR, and ID. http://spc.noaa.gov/products/watch/ww0364.html Lol...it's one of those all too rare days in these parts!

Warm, somewhat moist (Tds in the upper 40s, lower 50s) air is moving east over the Cascades. Shear looks pretty good for this area and there are already a few storms down near The Dalles and La Grande (1" hail reported).

Here's Pendleton's radar: http://radar.weather.gov/ridge/radar.php?r...101111&loop=yes

Here's a visible satellite loop centered on WA: http://weather.cod.edu/analysis/loops/satl...r.pl?Washington

I'm in Ellensburg, where I-82 meets I-90 (in the center of WA), and the clouds are starting to move in from the south. We don't get very many (even weak) thunderstorms around here, so needless to say the watch box and increasing clouds are enough to get people excited.


Any thoughts from the more educated/advanced Stormtrackers out there?
[/b]

Being born and raised in your area, get excited! Last season it was active up by Wenatchee and Spokane. I have been watching the radar and was tracking a storm headed for Hay (I lived in the Hay/LaCrosse area for a summer) and would have loved to see that storm come up the Snake River canyon. Washington is getting more active in the summer months, and does get tornadoes!

The Dalles/Boardman areas are a semi hotbed for activity in the summer. The Gorge is cool to experience storms. I grew up in Whitman Co, and my best friend is in Clarkston Heights and she states it was very LOUD and bright at her house. My mom said she missed everything in Ephrata (same as when I lived there). Chasing would be fun in the flat areas of the Columbia Basin and just E of it toward Colfax. I just never got the opportunity when I lived up home. Are you a spotter for the NWS?

Enjoy the storms!

 

[Rebekah LaBar]

Chasing would be fun in the flat areas of the Columbia Basin and just E of it toward Colfax.[/b]

Nope, I'm not an official spotter. Just an aspiring meteorologist looking forward to moving to Norman for grad school this summer and hopefully some bigger storms sometime! I do think it would be fun to chase around the Palouse country, but I stayed home yesterday evening and just hoped the storms would come this way; my parents just bought me a relatively new car and wouldn't have appreciated it if I had gone out and found some large hail!
The northwestern edge of The Dalles' storm clipped us, but I didn't see anything but a couple lightning strikes. There was a lot of thunder and it's been raining off and on since then.

Washington is getting more active in the summer months, and does get tornadoes![/b]

Yep, I actually saw my first tornado 8 years ago on July 3rd right here in Ellensburg! Just tossed my neighbor's hay around. Sunday looks like it could be interesting, but that's for another thread if anything comes of it. B)

 

[Chris Sokol]

I am moving this to W&C, as it is more suited for that area...

Yeah, here we are in the middle of yet another "Spectacular" May in Oklahoma...geez.