Picture by Robert Ames on Hightway 12 around 7 PM Sunday.
Haboob. An exotic name for an exotic weather feature. Haboobs are dramatic dust storms produced by strong winds that are generally associated with thunderstorm gust fronts or very strong cold fronts. Early Sunday evening the characteristic wall of dust was seen over a number of locations of eastern Washington as strong outflow winds from thunderstorms pushed northward over the inland empire.
An intense line of convection was moving northeastward into eastern Washington at 7:37 PM as seen by the Spokane NWS radar. Reds are intense rain and hail.
Two hours later it had push northward in a line extending from Wenatchee to Spokane.
Since the NWS radars have Doppler capability, we can view winds from them as well. Here is the Doppler winds at 9:26 PM. Remember these are the components of the wind toward or away from the radar, not the total wind. Wow. At least 45 knots.
As a sample of the strong winds, here is what happened at Spokane's Fairchild AFB. Strong gusts (in the 50s mph) and a wind shift to the south. Several thousand homes lost power in areas of eastern Washington and a number of trees were toppled.
Haboobs are getting less frequent in eastern Washington as farmer's practice better soil conservation approaches, but it is hard not to get one after a parching summer and such strong winds.
By the way, Haboob or Arabic habūb means violent storm or strong winds.
Let me end with a video of the Haboob from Corey Spencer at the Wine Valley Golf Cours.
Update.
Here is a sample of the storm reports accumulated by the National Weather Service Spokane office. Large number of trees down. When power poles are being taken down, you know you have a serious problem!
0723 PM TSTM WND DMG OTHELLO 46.82N 119.17W
09/15/2013 ADAMS WA UTILITY COMPANY
NUMEROUS TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN. TREES DOWN ON HOMES
AND FENCES. ESTIMATED 40 POWER POLES SNAPPED OFF.
0725 PM TSTM WND DMG OTHELLO 46.82N 119.17W
09/15/2013 ADAMS WA TRAINED SPOTTER
PORTABLE SHELTER BLOWN 50 TO 60 FT. VISIBILITY REDUCED TO
LESS THAN A QUARTER MILE IN BLOWING DUST.
0730 PM TSTM WND GST WARDEN 46.97N 119.05W
09/15/2013 M58.00 MPH GRANT WA TRAINED SPOTTER
VISIBILITY REDUCED TO 50 FT IN BLOWING DUST
0743 PM TSTM WND GST 22 SW RITZVILLE 46.90N 118.71W
09/15/2013 M50.00 MPH ADAMS WA TRAINED SPOTTER
VISIBILITY REDUCED TO ZERO IN BLOWING DUST.
0745 PM TSTM WND DMG MOSES LAKE 47.12N 119.29W
09/15/2013 GRANT WA BROADCAST MEDIA
NUMEROUS TREES AND POWER LINES WERE BLOWN DOWN. SOME
TREES FELL ON HOUSES AND VEHICLES.
0745 PM TSTM WND GST LIND 46.97N 118.61W
09/15/2013 M55.00 MPH ADAMS WA MESONET
0753 PM TSTM WND DMG WASHTUCNA 46.75N 118.31W
09/15/2013 ADAMS WA UTILITY COMPANY
POWER OUTAGE AFFECTING 40 CUSTOMERS. COMBINE SHED WAS
DESTROYED. UPROOTED 5 TREES. ROOF BLOWN OFF OF A BARN.
0756 PM TSTM WND DMG 3 ESE GRAND COULEE 47.92N 118.94W
09/15/2013 LINCOLN WA TRAINED SPOTTER
LARGE TREE LIMB DOWN. ESTIMATED 10 TO 12 INCHES IN
DIAMETER. NUMEROUS OTHER 3 TO 4 INCH DIAMETER BRANCHES
DOWN ALONG ROUTE FROM HOME TO DOWNTOWN. MEASURED 47 MPH
ON HOME WEATHER STATION.
0800 PM TSTM WND DMG 4 NNW RUFF 47.22N 119.04W
09/15/2013 GRANT WA PUBLIC
OUTBUILDING DESTROYED. FENCE DAMAGED BY FLYING DEBRIS.
0815 PM TSTM WND DMG 6 NNE SOAP LAKE 47.46N 119.45W
09/15/2013 GRANT WA BROADCAST MEDIA
AT LEAST 6 POWER POLES WERE SNAPPED OFF.
0815 PM TSTM WND GST ODESSA 47.33N 118.69W
09/15/2013 M59.00 MPH LINCOLN WA MESONET
ODESSA AGRIMET STATION MEASURED 59 MPH WIND GUST.
0845 PM TSTM WND DMG 8 SE HARRINGTON 47.40N 118.13W
09/15/2013 LINCOLN WA PUBLIC
ROOF BLOWN OFF OF A BARN. TIME IS ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
0910 PM TSTM WND GST 3 N AIRWAY HEIGHTS 47.69N 117.58W
09/15/2013 M60.00 MPH SPOKANE WA OFFICIAL NWS OBS
60 MPH WIND GUST AT NWS OFFICE.
0920 PM TSTM WND DMG 3 ESE SPOKANE 47.66N 117.34W
09/15/2013 SPOKANE WA BROADCAST MEDIA
SEVERAL TENTS AT THE SPOKANE FAIRGROUNDS WERE DAMAGED AND
FLIPPED DUE TO HIGH WINDS FROM THUNDERSTORMS BETWEEN 915
AND 945 PM PDT.
0925 PM TSTM WND DMG 13 SW IRBY 47.22N 119.04W
09/15/2013 GRANT WA PUBLIC
PERSON REPORTED SHOP DOORS BLOWN OFF AND SHOP BLOWN DOWN
AND POWER POLES DOWN ON WHEELER RD
1049 PM TSTM WND GST 12 N WAHA 46.38N 116.85W
09/15/2013 M61.00 MPH NEZ PERCE ID MESONET
THE WIND GUST WAS MEASURED AT THE CORRAL CREEK RAWS
STATION AND LIKELY OCCURRED DURING THE PREVIOUS HOUR.
1050 PM TSTM WND DMG PRIEST RIVER 48.19N 116.91W
09/15/2013 BONNER ID LAW ENFORCEMENT
LAW ENFORCEMENT STATED SEVERAL POWER LINES DOWN ACROSS
AREAS OF SOUTHWESTERN BONNER COUNTY. EXACT LOCATIONS
UNKNOWN AT TIME OF REPORT AND NOT SURE IF IT WAS FROM
DOWNED TREES OR LIMBS.
Picture by Skyking3286 at Kadlec Hospital in Richland
On the 0436 radar image, you can see what looks like the gust front as a darker blue line along the northern edge of the storms.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing a few of these as a small child in Saudi Arabia back in the early 1960s. I think they were a formative event in my interest in weather. Well, that, and Dr Seuss' Bartholomew and the Oobleck...
The stations reporting erroneous measurements are all reporting the same value -- 159. Why is that?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/43207034@N06/9787262335/
ReplyDeleteView for Kadlec Hospital on Saturday in Richland, WA, as the dust cloud over takes the TriCities, WA
What is the difference between a haboob and a derecho?
ReplyDeleteI was in it! A friend and I were climbing in the Entiat Mountains Friday through Monday. We had quite a thunderstorm late Sunday night. Almost a midwest style storm.
ReplyDeleteBoy you guy's are having quite the week!
ReplyDeletewhen do the Frogs and locust arrive!
This storm hit Connell, Washington at around 7:30PM. It blew in with such force that it felled a 16 inch pine tree that fell across a home and with electrical sparks or lightning burned the home to the ground.
ReplyDeleteA fellow I work with lost power in Othello for the better part of a full day. Highway 17 was closed because of the dozens of downed power poles laying everywhere.
Unless you go through one of these storms you don't have a real appreciation of the power they possess and your total helplessness when it hits.
Please don't refer to Eastern Washington as the Inland Empire, its an incorrect usage of a term used for the urban area to the east of Los Angeles. Us Pacific Northwesterners don't want any affiliation with that...
ReplyDelete