Cooldown today west of the Cascades a bit overshadowed by what appeared to be a supercell storm that developed near Maupin and moved northeast this afternoon. The storm dropped large hail and brought wind gusts over 80 mph in a few spots. As it was over the Boardman Bombing Range, the cell showed rotation and a tornado formed. It was spotted near I-84 and also on the Umatilla Army Depot. After that point the only damage was wind and large hail once again.
Back in the western valleys this weekend should be pretty quiet until Sunday afternoon. Looks like a nice round of convection (thunderstorms) later Sunday afternoon as another wave moves north.
All of next week we will be dominated by a cold upper-level low. The Rose Festival must be close at hand!
FOX 12 Weather Blog 
Yeah most definitely. Nice to actually get storms when they were forecasted, instead of the disappointment last Monday.
PDX has set a new record rainfall so far for today, at .72, beating the former record of .44
Nice story Dmitri. I’m about ready to go to sleep, looks as if storms are done for tonight but solid rain moving back into the area/ Wouldn’t be surprised to see common event totals of over 1 inch. Overally a very pleasing day for the area.
Well I’m back from my little adventure…quick recap:
I left my place in NW Portland around 8:40, and drove east on Burnside, with frequent lightning overhead. Some of the best I’ve seen here. I crossed Burnside bridge and headed south on MLK to get a better view of the approaching storm, and within seconds I saw a wall of water in front of me where the rain was approaching me. I actually got hit by some hail very briefly but it was mostly a torrential pounding downpour. Had to be on of the heaviest downpours I’ve ever seen in this state! I literally pulled over on MLK and watched the rain in awe.
Within minutes there were torrents of water cascading off every roof like I’ve never seen before, with literally rivers rushing down the sides of the streets and creating major street flooding on just about every corner. Luckily for me I was in a Nissan Xterra so I didn’t mind the high water too much with the ground clearance I have. I only recall seeing this bad of street flooding maybe a couple times in all my years here (notably August 2004, anyone remember that?).
I then turned around and headed north to try to keep up with the storm, first on MLK and then following it north along I-5 to Vancouver. Treacherous driving conditions with severe hydroplaning conditions there, again luckily I have bigger tires than a compact car but I still felt the sliding pretty good. I then headed east on SR 14 in Vancouver, and when I reached I-205 I began seeing more lightning develop to the south and south-east.
I decided to turn south and swing around to NE Marine Drive, to a spot I know from going out there to watch planes right by the north runway at PDX. Its probably one of the best places in the entire metro area to watch the weather – you have clear, unobstructed views in all directions due to the airport visibility requirements. I spent a good 45 minutes sitting there and watching the lightning show to my east as that southern cell slowly moved northward, only after coming home just now I learned that it had turned severe in the troutdale area as I was watching it.
Oh yeah, and it was an awesome sight watching planes take into a night sky lit up with flashes of lightning. Simply mesmerizing.
In short, an amazing night of storminess here – sure to be remembered for a long time.
I wonder if anything is developing south of us. The radar hasn’t updated since 10:22 PM
…. I think we have a chance of more storms, just nothing intense.
-Rob
Finally!! had a heck of a time uploading these, need to get my new broken computer fixed lol. Here is a link to the pics we took today. some are from earlier in the day and the others are from when the thunderstorm was just approaching me here in salem.
http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/pnwwj/photos/browse/743a?c=
Wow what an eventful day. So glad we got to share our comments, information, etc on this Blog. Well I saw well over 100 lightning strikes. I can’t remember when there has ever been a Severe T-storm this late in the metro area. The fact that this cell held together from south of Eugene, to Gresham is amazing in itself. Truly crazy.
-Rob
What a day! The first thunderstorm for me rolled over NE Portland around 4-4:30 PM. Then, when I saw the big storms forming down the valley, I went up to Rocky Butte about 8 PM to watch the approaching storms. I counted about 125 flashes of lightning from about 8:20 until 9:00 when the lightning was too close for comfort. Funny thing is that there were a lot of other idiots on top of that hill watching as well. When I drove back to my house, I got caught up in a torrential downpour with heavy rain and perhaps marble-sized hailstones bouncing all over the place.
Probably is it for tonight, another round or two of rain is developing for us, but as we said the convection is about over. No heating, just cloudy rain.
whenever that may be anyway…lol
You know, even if we didn’t see anything terrible. It was pretty fun. I did after all get nearly dime sized hail earlier. And now a crazy rainstorm. Can’t wait for the next round.
Mostly just distant lightning, not much rain, the cell has continued to skip to the east so the bulk of it is missing me.
Man still a driving rain out there with lightning in the distance. My drains have overflowed now lol
Too bad it missed me, well the best stuff. Its probably rained over a half inch from this cell alone so its raining like mad out there. I have seen tons of lightning. The sky has the look of snow to it, obviously the hail has the same effect.
-100F Where can i see the warning?
Where is CamasMom??
That thing moving to the east is 67 Dbz, producing 1.5 Inch hail! NWS has issuied a severe thunderstorm warning!
thanks, too bad that cell moving northeast on the eastside didnt come through us!
The southern cell Droppin? Nice, I’ll get my camera back out. I seriously am worried that these training cells may pose a localized flooding problem. The moisture content of these things is rare for here, and as we all know Portland’s drainage system can’t handle it.
Frequent lightning over my house. The storm is back up to 65 dbz! Incredible