Thunderstorm Wind — Douglas, Washington

2013-09-05 · near Orondo, Douglas, Washington

Event narrative

Tree fell onto mobile home that briefly trapped the occupants. Bedroom door was damaged and occupants had to crawl through an opening to the hallway to escape. Minor injuries were sustained to an adult female and a child.

Wider weather episode

An upper level low pressure system over western Oregon ejected a negatively tilted shortwave trough of lower pressure over the region during the evening hours of September 5th. Precipitable water values were twice the normal value for early September. A line of strong thunderstorms tracked across east-central Washington bringing strong winds and heavy rain. The hardest hit areas were across the Waterville Plateau, the Wenatchee area and east slopes of the northern Cascades. Strong winds did result in some fallen trees, but the greatest impact was due to the heavy rainfall. Training thunderstorms and intense rainfall resulted in flash flooding across multiple drainages. Recent burn scars from 2012 and 2013 wildfires also helped to create a damaging flash flood event.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (47.6298, -120.2223)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 475687. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.