Tornado Warning on the Washington Coast, Tornado on the Oregon Coast
One coast has a weather radar, which facilitated warning of a potential tornado.
The other coast had no radar coverage, allowing a tornado to strike without warning.
Yesterday (Tuesday), very unstable air mass with strong convection (thunderstorms) made landfall on the Northwest coastline.
The visible satellite image from the NASA MODIS satellite around noon showed lines of strong convection approaching the Oregon/Washington coast (see below)
Why so active? Cold air was moving over water water, which created a large temperature change with height that in turn produces substantial instability--the tendency of the atmosphere to convect.
Roughly an hour before this satellite image, a funnel cloud was observed off of Manzanita, Oregon (on the northern coast) and around 11:15 AM it made landfall as a tornado, causing minor damage. No tornado warning was provided. This was a weak tornado: an EF-0 with winds gusting to 65-75 mph.
One reason there was little warning, is that there is very limited no low-level radar coverage over the Oregon coast, something made obvious by the weather radar map at around 11:15 AM Tuesday.
The Washington State coastal zone is well covered by the Langley Hill radar near Hoquiam, but there is no National Weather Service radar on the Oregon coast.
In contrast, around 5 PM yesterday, the National Weather Service in Seattle provided a tornado warning for the area around Hoquiam and Aberdeen, based on the the Langley Hill radar.
Why did they distribute this warning? Because the Langley Hill radar picked a collection of intense thunderstorm cells (see below) and some of the some of the cells possessed some rotation--something known as a mesocyclone.
At this point, there are no reports of a tornado--but the potential was there.
Interestingly, Manzanita, on the northern Oregon coast, seems to be a tornado hotbed, with another funnel hitting the town in 2016. Sounds like my kind of place for a beach vacation!
More seriously, it is outrageous that the Oregon coast has virtually no radar coverage. Such coverage would not only help protect coastal residents, but would give a heads up for approaching storms for the densely populated Willamette Valley and Puget Sound regions.
The other coast had no radar coverage, allowing a tornado to strike without warning.
Yesterday (Tuesday), very unstable air mass with strong convection (thunderstorms) made landfall on the Northwest coastline.
The visible satellite image from the NASA MODIS satellite around noon showed lines of strong convection approaching the Oregon/Washington coast (see below)
Why so active? Cold air was moving over water water, which created a large temperature change with height that in turn produces substantial instability--the tendency of the atmosphere to convect.
Roughly an hour before this satellite image, a funnel cloud was observed off of Manzanita, Oregon (on the northern coast) and around 11:15 AM it made landfall as a tornado, causing minor damage. No tornado warning was provided. This was a weak tornado: an EF-0 with winds gusting to 65-75 mph.
One reason there was little warning, is that there is very limited no low-level radar coverage over the Oregon coast, something made obvious by the weather radar map at around 11:15 AM Tuesday.
The Washington State coastal zone is well covered by the Langley Hill radar near Hoquiam, but there is no National Weather Service radar on the Oregon coast.
In contrast, around 5 PM yesterday, the National Weather Service in Seattle provided a tornado warning for the area around Hoquiam and Aberdeen, based on the the Langley Hill radar.
Why did they distribute this warning? Because the Langley Hill radar picked a collection of intense thunderstorm cells (see below) and some of the some of the cells possessed some rotation--something known as a mesocyclone.
At this point, there are no reports of a tornado--but the potential was there.
Interestingly, Manzanita, on the northern Oregon coast, seems to be a tornado hotbed, with another funnel hitting the town in 2016. Sounds like my kind of place for a beach vacation!
More seriously, it is outrageous that the Oregon coast has virtually no radar coverage. Such coverage would not only help protect coastal residents, but would give a heads up for approaching storms for the densely populated Willamette Valley and Puget Sound regions.
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