High Wind — Moses Lake Area, Washington

2007-01-07 · Moses Lake Area, Washington

Wider weather episode

A strong lee side trough east of the Cascades led to strong damaging gravity wave winds. Where these gravity waves mixed down to the surface, extensive to catastrophic damages occurred. These winds mixed down in the Wenatchee, Manson, south Lake Chelan area, Quincy, and the Royal slope area of Royal City. Numerous trees were blown down, several of which fell on power lines, cars and homes. Extensive roof damage occurred to several homes and businesses. Chelan County was hit especially hard where commissioners declared a state of emergency. A total of 400-500 trees fell onto power lines in Chelan County. In Quincy, numerous irrigation systems with a length of a quarter mile and weighing almost 20 tons were blown over. Around 90 power poles were blown over in Western Grant County between George and Royal Slope. Rocks the size of golf balls were driven up off the ground by the wind. Interstate 90 just east of George was closed from 2:40 PM till 4:00 PM when a downed line ripped a radio antenna off one vehicle, broke out a passenger side windshield of another vehicle, with the debris from the windshield damaging another vehicle. At Pangborn Memorial Airport in Wenatchee, a peak wind gust of 72 MPH was recorded. Twenty aircraft that were tied down came loose, with 12 receiving minor damage. In the Wenatchee heights area 3,800 fruit trees, mainly Cherry, were damaged by the winds. In the Manson area, a narrow line of damage was observed from the Loop Avenue area across Lake Chelan to a resort with wind gusts up to 74 MPH. 20 indirect injuries resulted from the storm.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 12204. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.