A tornado touched down around 1619 PDT near the southeast corner of Lake Tapps and moved northeast around 36 mph for 16 minutes, lifting off the ground just northeast of Enumclaw. There was also a lightning strike which damaged a home in Auburn.
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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.
The episode as NWS SEW wrote it up.
A tornado touched down around 1619 PDT near the southeast corner of Lake Tapps and moved northeast around 36 mph for 16 minutes, lifting off the ground just northeast of Enumclaw. There was also a lightning strike which damaged a home in Auburn.
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 Seattle, WA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Sep 6, 2:00 PM PST, 1 hour earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA 300 PM PDT SUN SEP 6 2009 .SYNOPSIS...SHOWERS WILL CONTINUE THIS EVENING THEN DECREASE TONIGHT AS A DEEP UPPER LOW HEADS NORTHEAST ACROSS BRITISH COLUMBIA. SHOWERS AND SUN BREAKS ARE IN STORE FOR LABOR DAY AS A WEAK SYSTEM CROSSES THE AREA. AN UPPER RIDGE WILL BRING DRY WEATHER TUESDAY...WITH ANOTHER WEAK FRONT AFFECTING THE AREA WEDNESDAY. A STRONGER UPPER RIDGE WILL BRING DRY WARMER WEATHER THURSDAY THROUGH THE WEEKEND. && .SHORT TERM...THE DEEP 5510 METER UPPER LOW WEVE BEEN FOLLOWING IS BEGINNING TO TURN A BIT NORTH OF DUE EAST AS IT HEADS FOR THE SOUTH PART OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. BANDS OF CONVECTION HAVE BEEN MOVING NORTHEAST ACROSS WESTERN WASHINGTON ALL DAY. AT 2 PM A BAND WAS HEADING ACROSS THE CASCADES...ANOTHER BAND WAS MOVING THROUGH THE INTERIOR LOWLANDS...AND MORE LOOSELY ORGANIZED SHOWERS JUST SOUTHEAST OF THE UPPER LOW WERE CROSSING THE OLYMPIC PENINSULA. THERE HAVE BEEN SOME LIGHTNING STRIKES AND ISOLATED REPORTS OF HAIL ...BUT MAINLY THE SHOWERS HAVE BEEN PRODUCING SIGNIFICANT PRECIPITATION AMOUNTS. SOME AREAS ALONG THE COAST AND OVER THE OLYMPIC PENINSULA HAVE STORMS TOTALS SO FAR OF 1 TO ALMOST 2 INCHES WITH AMOUNTS OF A 0.50 TO 1 INCH FAIRLY COMMON OVER THE INTERIOR LOWLANDS AND ROUGHLY 0.75 TO 1.5 INCHES IN THE CASCADES. THE SNOW LEVEL HAS BEEN AROUND 6000 FT ALL DAY...SO WE CAN ASSUME SNOWFALL AMOUNTS AT THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS HAVE BEEN SUBSTANTIAL. A GOOD RULE OF THUMB IS 1 INCH OF PRECIPITATION EQUALS 10 INCHES OF SNOW. FAIRLY WIDESPREAD SHOWERS WILL CONTINUE THIS EVENING...THEN TAPER OFF OVERNIGHT AS THE UPPER LOW LIFTS NORTHEAST ACROSS BRITISH COLUMBIA. THE UPPER TROUGH AXIS WILL SHIFT EAST OF THE CASCADES LATE TONIGHT BUT A SMALL WEAK SHORTWAVE CURRENTLY WEST OF THE QUEEN CHARLOTTES WILL DROP SOUTHEAST ACROSS THE FORECAST AREA ON LABOR DAY. THERE WILL STILL BE PLENTY OF MOISTURE IN THE LOW LEVEL ONSHORE FLOW...AND A PUGET SOUND CONVERGENCE ZONE COULD ALSO DEVELOP. BOTTOM LINE IS THAT SHOWERS WILL LINGER OVER THE AREA THROUGH MONDAY EVENING...THOUGH OBVIOUSLY THEY WILL BE MUCH LIGHTER THAN TODAY. THE AIR MASS WILL REMAIN COOL WITH TEMPERATURES STILL BELOW NORMAL AND THE SNOW LEVEL AROUND 6000 FT. A MINOR UPPER RIDGE WILL PROGRESS INTO THE OFFSHORE WATERS MONDAY NIGHT AND ACROSS WESTERN WASHINGTON TUESDAY. ANY LINGERING SHOWERS SHOULD BREATHE THEIR LAST GASP MONDAY NIGHT WITH DRY WEATHER...SOME SUNSHINE...AND SLIGHTLY WARMER TEMPERATURES ON TUESDAY. A WEAK FRONTAL SYSTEM HEADED MAINLY FOR BRITISH COLUMBIA HAS BEEN THE SUBJECT OF FORECAST UNCERTAINTY FOR THE PAST COUPLE DAYS. RECENT MODEL RUNS HAVE REVERSED COURSE FROM PREVIOUS ONES...BRINGING THE SYSTEM THROUGH THE RIDGE AND ACROSS WESTERN WASHINGTON RATHER THAN KEEPING IT TO OUR NORTH. THUS THE FORECAST FOR LATER TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY HAS CHANGED WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF CHANCE TO LIKELY POPS. MCDONNAL .LONG TERM...AN UPPER RIDGE WILL REBOUND THURSDAY BEHIND THE WEAK FRONTAL SYSTEM MOVING THROUGH ON WEDNESDAY...AND THERE IS HIGH CONFIDENCE THAT IT WILL REMAIN OVER THE AREA FRIDAY. THE FORECAST FOR THE WEEKEND IS MORE UNCERTAIN...AS SOME MODEL RUNS AND ENSEMBLE MEMBERS HAVE BEEN SHOWING THE UPPER RIDGE SHIFTING EASTWARD AND ALLOWING A WEAK FRONTAL SYSTEM TO MOVE INLAND. THE RECENT TREND THOUGH HAS BEEN FOR THE UPPER RIDGE TO HANG TOUGH AND KEEP THE AREA DRY THROUGH SUNDAY...AND THE FORECAST WILL REFLECT THAT IDEA. MCDONNAL && .AVIATION...UPPER AND SURFACE TROUGH MOVG THRU WRN WA THIS EVENING. MOIST UNSTABLE AIR MASS W/ SW FLOW ALF BECMG W. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND EVENING TSTMS. MTNS OBSCURED. A FEW SUNBREAKS LATE THIS AFTERNOON WITH CONTINUED GUSTY WINDS...THEN SETTLING DOWN OVERNIGHT. A CHANCE OF A PSCZ TNGT OR MON. KSEA...BREEZY SLY WIND GRADUALLY DECREASING OVERNIGHT WITH SCATTERED SHOWERS...STILL A CHANCE OF A TSTM THIS EVENING BUT SHUD NOT NEED TO PUT IT IN THE TAF UNLESS THE RADAR SHOWS SOMETHING APCHG THE AIRPORT JUST BEFORE I SEND THE 00Z TAF. A FEW SHOWERS WILL PROBABLY PERSIST MON MORNING...THEN THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE OF SCATTERING OUT MON AFTERNOON. && .MARINE...MORE OF THE SAME THIS EVENING WITH BLUSTERY WINDS 20-30KT AS THE TROF MOVES ONSHORE AND THEN FILLS OVERNIGHT. THE LOW CENTER IS ARND 1007MB OFF THE NORTH COAST THIS AFTERNOON AND WILL DISSIPATE OVERNIGHT NEAR VANCOUVER ISLAND. THERE WILL BE LIGHTER CONVERGING WINDS ON MONDAY ARND ADMIRALTY INLET...AND THEN GRADIENTS BECOME RATHER LIGHT LATE MON THRU MIDWEEK...ALTHOUGH A WARM FRONT WILL BRUSH THE COASTAL WATERS FOR A MODERATELY SLY BREEZE BY WED THERE. && .SEW WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... WA...NONE. PZ...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY ALL WATERS AND FOR THE GRAYS HARBOR BAR FOR ROUGH BAR CONDITIONS. WWW.WEATHER.GOV/SEATTLE FOR AN ILLUSTRATED VERSION OF THE FORECAST DISCUSSION PLEASE SEE WWW.WEATHER.GOV/SEATTLE/GAFD/LATESTWEBAFD.HTML (ALL LOWERCASE)
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
1037 AM PDT SUN SEP 06 2009
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
1032 AM HAIL WSW TENINO 46.86N 122.86W
09/06/2009 M0.50 INCH THURSTON WA TRAINED SPOTTER
&&
DDAMICOThe Seattle radar (KATX), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:59 UTC.
1 lightning, 1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
Lightning struck a tree next to a home, causing damage to the home's siding and much of the electronics inside.
Confirmed EF1 tornado with estimated wind speed 100-110 mph. Maximum width was 170 yards. On ground intermittently over a 9.6 mile path length for 16 minutes.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Washington in 2009Every state in 2009This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Washington, 2009Warnings in Washington, September 2009
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: 194443, 194441.