Hail and Lightning Strike in Washington, April 27, 2001

Name: Hail and Lightning Strike in Washington, April 27, 2001
Start: 2001-04-27T14:49
End: 2001-04-27T18:30
Location: Washington

April 27, 2001 · NWS OTX · 3 events in 2 counties and zones

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $10,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 3

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS OTX wrote it up.

Summary of events for April 27 2001:A cold front moving into a moist (dewpoints in the mid 50s) and unstable airmass across eastern Washington touched off severe thunderstorms across the Palouse region of far eastern Washington on the afternoon of April 27. The strongest thunderstorm of the day developed just west of Pullman, moving quickly north-northeast and dropping severe hail from there all the way to the northeast corner of Whitman County. One other notable thunderstorm (non-severe) developed over southwest Whitman County. This storm eventually moved north into Spokane County with an unusual display of frequent lightning and many lightning-related power outages. Downtown Spokane received one-half inch of rain in just 15 minutes with this storm.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Spokane, WA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 27, 2:07 PM PST, 42 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 27, 2:07 PM PST, 42 minutes before

EASTERN WASHINGTON AND NORTH IDAHO AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SPOKANE WASHINGTON
230 PM PDT FRI APR 27 2001

12Z ETA/AVN INITIALIZED WELL THIS MORNING BY OVERLAY W/IR SAT LOOP.
CONVECTIVE PARAMETERS STILL LOOK PRETTY IMPRESSIVE OVER THE EXTREME
EASTERN THIRD OF WASHINGTON AND THE ID PANHANDLE ZNS FOR LATE THIS
AFTERNOON AND EVENING. DO LIKE THE SPEED AND STRENGTH OF THE AVN
MODEL. HIGH LEVEL MOISTURE ALREADY STREAMING OVER THE CASCADES AND
INTO THE CWA. CAPE VALUES WELL ABOVE 1000 J/KG COUPLED UP WITH GOOD
70H MOISTURE ADVECTION AND LIS OF -4 TO -6 DEPICT A VERY UNSTABLE
LOWER ATMOSPHERE THIS AFTERNOON. WILL STILL KEEP FOCUS OF CONVECTION
TO THE EXTREME SOUTHEAST PART OF CWA AND CENTRAL PANHANDLE MOUNTAINS
...ALTHOUGH MOST OF THE CWA WILL HAVE POTENTIAL FOR ISOLATED THUNDER
THROUGH THIS EVENING. OFF SHORE UPPER TROUGH NOW ROTATING EAST AS
UPPER SPEED MAX ROUNDING BASE OF TROUGH. CAA W/TROUGH TO BE THE MAIN
PLAYER FOR REMAINDER OF SHORT TERM FORECAST PERIOD. WILL HANG ONTO
LIKELY POPS TONIGHT AND SATURDAY MORNING PER PREVIOUS FORECASTS
BEFORE CHANGING TO COOL/SHOWERY PATTERN AND SCATTERED POPS IN THE
AFTERNOON AS TROUGH AXIS MOVES THROUGH CWA.

FLOW BECOMES ZONAL BY SAT NGT CUTTING OFF SHOWER THREAT FOR EAST
SLOPE ZNS AND BASIN. NEXT PACIFIC SHORT WAVE NEAR THE DATELINE IS
SUPPORTED BY A 160+ KT JET AND WILL RAPIDLY EJECT/KICK OUT SATURDAYS
SHORTWAVE. SNOW LEVELS WILL QUICKLY DROP TO NEAR 5000 FEET SATURDAY
AND SATURDAY NIGHT BEFORE MODERATING SUNDAY. SURFACE WINDS WILL PICK
UP INTO THE BREEZY CATEGORY ALONG THE CASCADES EAST SLOPES AND BASIN
SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND NIGHT. GDB

.EXTENDED...A LOW PRESSURE TROUGH MOVES OVER THE AREA MONDAY AND
TUESDAY FOR A CHANCE OF SHOWERS BOTH DAYS. THEN A WEAK RIDGE BUILDS
IN FOR WEDNESDAY.  THIS SHOULD BRING IMPROVING WEATHER STARTING IN
THE WEST WEDNESDAY AND SPREADING TO THE IDAHO PANHANDLE ON THURSDAY.
WILL BRING A CHANCE OF SHOWERS BACK IN FOR THE WESTERN PORTION OF THE
AREA WEDNESDAY THEN FOR THE EAST ON FRIDAY. LH

THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRODUCT CONCERNING WARNINGS AND FORECASTS IS
VALID ONLY AT THE TIME OF ISSUANCE. THE LATEST WARNING AND FORECAST
INFORMATION WILL BE FOUND IN THE APPROPRIATE PRODUCTS...

GEG 043/064/039/062 6633
CQV 041/066/037/064 7753
SPT 042/064/038/062 7753
COE 041/063/038/061 6644
WWP 040/054/036/052 7754
LWS 050/068/047/065 7632
PUW 045/063/045/063 7632
EAT 045/066/042/066 4411
MWH 048/068/044/068 4411

.GEG...NONE.

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

2 hail, 1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Whitman

When: April 27, 2:49 PM PST to 3:10 PM PST
Where: Whitman County, 4 mi SSW of Albion
Measured: 1.75 in hail
Property damage: $10,000
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 46.750, -117.283

A single thunderstorm which moved north-northeast between Colfax and Pullman produced several reports of large hail. Golfball-sized hail at the Whitman County Landfill (4 SSW Albion) did extensive damage to the aluminum canopy on a truck there. A trained spotter in Albion reported dime-sized hail. A farmer located on Clear Creek Road (9 NNE Albion) reported quarter-sized hail which was deep enough to cover the ground.

Hail, Whitman

When: April 27, 3:42 PM PST
Where: Whitman County, 2 mi E of Oakesdale
Measured: 1 in hail
Reported by: NWS EMPLOYEE(OFF DUTY)
Coordinates: 47.133, -117.200

Location: on WA Hwy 27

Lightning, Spokane

When: April 27, 6:00 PM PST to 6:30 PM PST
Where: Spokane County, Cheney
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 47.621, -117.404 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

An unusual thunderstorm with frequent lightning moved across Spokane. Cloud-to-ground lightning hit two electric substations on the north side of Spokane, knocking out power to 15,000 residences for up to two hours.

What these are

Hail: Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.
Lightning: A lightning strike that killed, injured or caused damage.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Washington in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Washington, April 2001

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5239877, 5239876, 5239878.