One Strange Tornado: EF-0 In North Portland Today

10pm Sunday…

An EF-0 tornado today brought mainly minor damage along a 1 mile or so path at 3pm.

Here’s the weirdest part…with every other tornado (even when out in rural areas) we get a bunch of emails/calls or social media posts to the newsroom.  This time it was only ONE.  That’s it.  Apparently no one else noticed a tornado passing overhead.  I didn’t see any media tweets or social media postings until the NWS put out the storm report just before 8pm.

First damage was observed near Portland Meadows and last damage was found along the Columbia River at Marine Drive & 6th. A viewer also sent us video of the funnel cloud still rotating over south Vancouver after crossing the Columbia River.

Here’s one of the semi trailers tipped over.  This is just behind the Jubitz Truck Stop area.

Thanks to Larry Miller for the pic (not the Larry that lives in Cove)

Here’s a bit more detail on the damage from the Portland National Weather Service

This is the one and only tornado in Oregon OR Washington this year.

2017 saw 5 tornadoes in the two states.  That was Bend, Aurora, and Lacomb Oregon.

2016 saw 7, including 4 in Oregon.  Those were in Wheeler & Wallowa counties, Manzanita, & Oceanside.

Other than the tornado, today’s forecast turned out just like expected.  Lots of downpours, then hail, thunder, and sunshine.  Sometimes all of them within a 5 minute period too!

Tomorrow should be a bit tamer, although we’ll still have some downpours.

Up in the mountains it’s snowing for the first time in 3 weeks.  It appears about 2″ has fallen at Timberline.  There could be another 3-6″ before it dries out tomorrow night up there.  Passes will remain clear though.

Chief Meteorologist Mark Nelsen