August 23, 2022

A Lightning Vortex East of the Cascade Crest

 There was quite a lightning fest east of the Cascade crest today, with an impressive vortex of thunderstorms producing massive amounts of lightning.

The lightning flashes for the ten minutes ending 5:20 PM  tonight were amazing (see below, with clouds shown as well), with lightning circling around the vortex centered near Omak, WA.  Just wow....


The visible satellite image a few hours earlier shows the vortex and the numerous associated thunderstorms (each producing a blob of clouds).


These thunderstorms produced more than lighting, as illustrated by precipitation totals for today (Tuesday)...see below.  Some locations got over a half inch....a lot with a tenth of an inch or more.


The origin of this impressive vortex of clouds and lightning is an upper-level low.   Below is the map of 500-hPa heights (like pressures at 18,000 ft) around 5 PM (the winds are shown as well).  The low is centered near the WA/Canadian border, northwest of Spokane.


This low is not going anywhere fast.  Here is the forecast for 5 PM Wednesday.  A small shift to the southeast.


So you can expect a return of the thunderboomers on Wednesday!   To illustrate, below is the predicted clouds from the very high-resolution UW WRF model for 5 PM Wednesday.

Mama mia!  A lot of thunderstorms over the eastern quarter of Washington State!


Finally, tonight I was taking a long run with my dog around Magnuson Park in north Seattle and I saw a towering thunderstorm over the eastern slopes of the Cascades--some as high as 35,000 ft





6 comments:

  1. I live in Vancouver, I looked toward the east this afternoon and I also saw towering clouds, lots of them!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Off topic, I noticed the warm blob is back should we be concerned about this winter snowpack?.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yep, as I say I was in one of them! I understand that the Hart's Pass Road was blocked by slides just after we left. An hour later and we'd have been stranded.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow what a cool photo, Cliff, thanks for sharing! Amazing that our clear skies here give us a front row view to appreciate the scale of those thunderheads!

    ReplyDelete
  5. There was a really impressive cloud structure south of Mt. Rainier this evening (8/24) around 7 PM. Looked like maybe a mini convergence zone causing a thunderstorm but I didn't get a picture. I'd be interested in getting your take.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I live near republic and recieved 1.10" wednesday evening in a very short time span and another .30" this evening. Big rains and a massive amount of lightning in the area. End of August and my 80 acres Is very green still.

    ReplyDelete

Please make sure your comments are civil. Name calling and personal attacks are not appropriate.

The Seattle Times Says Washington State is in a Serious Drought. Is this True?

It is more than a little disturbing when a major regional newspaper (the Seattle Times) provides demonstrably inaccurate and deceptive weath...