Thunderstorm Wind — Kootenai, Idaho

2014-03-14 · near Rathdrum, Kootenai, Idaho

Event narrative

Half of a tree in Rathdrum City Park blew over from strong winds behind a squall line.

Wider weather episode

A vigorous occluded front pushed across the region through the early afternoon hours. Steepening low to mid-level lapse rates resulted in destabilizing atmosphere for the afternoon due to warming at the surface from the sun and cooling aloft by the approaching upper level shortwave trough. Forcing along the upper level wave produced a squall line that pushed into the central Idaho Panhandle. The squall line produced strong wind gusts down to the surface resulting in isolated straight lined wind damage.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (47.8106, -116.9004)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 504763. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.