Austin

Many might think severe weather only strikes the Great Plains and southeastern Unites States, but make no mistake, severe storms and tornadoes can strike anywhere in the country.

In fact, every state, including Alaska and Hawaii, have recorded at least one tornado. The Inland Northwest is no different, and while we don’t see the same frequency of these hazards as locations east of the Rockies, we do get our fair share.

On May 30, 2020, a significant severe thunderstorm event brought several intense thunderstorms to parts of central and northeast Oregon and far southeast Washington. Rotating thunderstorms, known as supercells, dropped large hail to the size of golfballs and larger to the west of Bend, and caused extensive wind damage in Culver, where winds were estimated at 80-100 mph.

More recently, on May 6 this year, a storm produced two separate tornadoes between Weston and Tollgate in the Blue Mountains. These tornadoes were given an intensity rating of EF-1, with wind speeds up to 104 mph. The tornadoes caused minor structural damage to a few buildings and wiped out numerous trees.

Umatilla County has historically seen few tornadoes, with only seven documented going back to 1950, including the two on May 6. While these are the only known documented tornadoes, it’s likely there have been others that were never witnessed or reported.

Much of National Weather Service Pendleton’s county warning area resides in rural areas with sparse populations. The combination of a low frequency of severe weather, and few people to witness and report it, likely means it happens more often than we think.

Digging into the severe weather archives, both Washington and Oregon see an average of two tornadoes per year. These largely occur west of the Cascades, where ingredients for severe weather come together a bit more often — moisture being the key ingredient.

One of the ways to improve our understanding of tornado and severe thunderstorm frequency is to train people how to safely observe and report severe weather to the NWS. This enables us to get a better grasp of how common large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes really are in the Inland Northwest. The other major benefit of the spotter training program is that it helps NWS forecasters do a better job when it comes to warning the public about hazardous weather.

The combination of complex terrain and limited radar data in some areas, make ground-truth observations critical when severe weather is occurring. The best way to become a storm spotter is to sit in on one of our live or virtual spotter training sessions, or take a series of self-guided online training sessions at your convenience.

We’re always looking for more storm spotters to engage with us and provide critical weather information! If you’re interested, visit weather.gov/pdt/spottertraining.