EF1 Tornado — Umatilla, Oregon

2022-05-06 · near Bingham Spgs, Umatilla, Oregon

Event narrative

At 1244 PST, a tornado spun up 7 miles east southeast of Weston, OR along OR Highway 204 and moved east crossing OR Highway 204 3 times before veering left about 1.9 miles from it's start point. The tornado continued east north east for 0.80 miles across a draw north of OR Hwy 204, following parallel to Lower Basket Mountain Rd for about 0.8 miles before dissipating. Many trees were either uprooted or snapped while covering the highway and other roads. Several residences saw roof damage, including failure and uplifting of a partial roof that was transported 300 feet. A farm outbuilding was also heavily damaged where the roof and walls had collapsed.

Wider weather episode

A potent upper level shortwave trough coupled with a cold front passage at the surface provided showery activity through most of the day. During the afternoon, these systems interacted with increasing instability, strong bulk shear, and upsloping into mountain areas allowed some of these showers to strengthen into strong thunderstorms that produced severe hail and a tornado.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (45.7870, -118.2830)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1031587. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.