A lightning strike drove a couple out of their home in the south Seattle suburb of Federal Way. The lightning late Wednesday afternoon hit a tree in the elderly couple’s front yard and traveled through the root system to the home.
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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 lightning strike drove a couple out of their home in the south Seattle suburb of Federal Way.
The lightning late Wednesday afternoon hit a tree in the elderly couple’s front yard and traveled through the root system to the home. The lightning blew out drywall in the house, damaged the gutters and caused a gas line to rupture.
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 Apr 1, 2:00 PM PST, 0 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
300 PM PDT WED APR 1 2015
.SYNOPSIS...AN UPPER TROUGH WILL BRING SHOWERS AND COOL WEATHER
TONIGHT. SHOWERS WILL DIMINISH THURSDAY AS WEAK HIGH PRESSURE BUILDS
OVER THE AREA. A FRONTAL SYSTEM WILL AFFECT THE AREA ON FRIDAY. AN
UPPER LOW WILL MAINTAIN A CHANCE OF SHOWERS THROUGH THE WEEKEND.
&&
.SHORT TERM...AN UPPER LEVEL TROUGH WILL MAINTAIN COOL AND SHOWERY
WEATHER ACROSS WESTERN WA THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. THE AIR MASS
IS MOIST AND UNSTABLE WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND ISOLATED
THUNDERSTORMS. SO FAR THE ONLY STRIKES HAVE BEEN IN OREGON BUT WITH
THE TROUGH AXIS CROSSING EARLY THIS EVENING WE MAY STILL SEE
ISOLATED T-STORMS IN WESTERN WA. SHOWER ACTIVITY WILL DIMINISH AFTER
SUNSET THIS EVENING.
THE AIR MASS WILL DRY OUT AND STABILIZE ON THURSDAY AS A WEAK UPPER
LEVEL RIDGE SHIFTS INLAND. THIS IS A DIRTY RIDGE AND SKIES WILL
LIKELY REMAIN MOSTLY CLOUDY. TEMPS WILL BUMP UPWARDS A FEW DEGREES
CLOSER TO NORMAL.
OUR NEXT COLD FRONT WILL REACH THE COAST EARLY FRIDAY MORNING...WITH
RAIN SPREADING INTO THE INTERIOR BY THE AFTERNOON. SNOW LEVELS WILL
REMAIN LOW...CLOSE TO 3000 FT...AND THE MOUNTAINS WILL SEE A FEW
MORE INCHES OF SNOW. AN UPPER LEVEL LOW WILL SPIN OFFSHORE ON
SATURDAY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS ACROSS WESTERN WA. BUT WE SHOULD
SEE SOME SUNBREAKS AS WELL. 33
.LONG TERM...THE AIR MASS WILL REMAIN COOL AND UNSTABLE THROUGH
EARLY NEXT WEEK AS AN UPPER LEVEL LOW SPINS OVERHEAD. THIS SYSTEM
WILL CONTINUE TO BRING MOISTURE TO WESTERN WA FOR A CHANCE OF
SHOWERS EACH DAY. NOT MUCH HAS CHANGED IN THE FORECAST OVER THIS
PERIOD. BY WEDNESDAY THE MODELS ARE NOW SHOWING THE LOW MOVING
FARTHER INLAND WHILE A RIDGE STARTS TO BUILD OVER THE PAC NW. SO
LOOK FOR DRIER WEATHER BY WEDNESDAY IF THIS PATTERN PANS OUT. BEYOND
THEN THE MODELS START TO DIVERGE. 33
&&
.AVIATION...A TROUGH WILL MOVE INLAND OVERNIGHT AS HIGH PRES BUILDS
INTO THE AREA. ONSHORE FLOW THIS EVENING WILL BECOME LIGHT ON
THURSDAY. THE AIR IS UNSTABLE THIS AFTERNOON WITH SCATTERED SHOWERS
THAT WILL END TONIGHT WITH SOME CLEARING BEFORE AREAS OF LOW CLOUDS
SET UP OVERNIGHT.
KSEA...SCATTERED SHOWERS INTO THE EVENING THEN SOME CLEARING. AREAS
OF LOW CLOUDS ARE LIKELY TO SET UP OVERNIGHT THEN SCATTER OUT LATER
THU MORNING. LIGHT CONVERGING WINDS THIS EVENING AROUND PUGET SOUND
OR VRB05KT.
&&
.MARINE...A TROUGH WILL MOVE INLAND TONIGHT WITH ONSHORE FLOW.
WESTERLIES WILL INCREASE LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING IN THE
STRAIT. WINDS WILL EASE LATER TONIGHT IN THE STRAIT AS HIGH PRESSURE
BUILDS INTO THE AREA. A VIGOROUS FRONT WILL MOVE THROUGH THE AREA
FRIDAY WITH SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY SOUTHERLIES. A LOW WILL LINGER JUST
OFFSHORE INTO THE WEEKEND.
&&
.SEW WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
WA...NONE.
PZ...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY CENTRAL AND EAST STRAIT OF JUAN DE
FUCA.
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY GRAYS HARBOR FOR ROUGH BAR.
&&
YOU CAN SEE AN ILLUSTRATED VERSION OF THIS FORECAST DISCUSSION AT
WWW.WEATHER.GOV/SEATTLE/GAFD/LATEST_WEBAFD.HTMLPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
252 PM PDT WED APR 01 2015
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0410 PM HAIL 6 N SEATTLE 47.71N 122.35W
03/31/2015 M0.50 INCH KING WA NWS EMPLOYEE
GREENWOOD NEIGHBORHOOD OF NORTH SEATTLE. 1 INCH OF HAIL
ACCUMULATION OVER ALL SURFACES. OCCASIONAL LIGHTNING AS
WELL.
0235 PM HAIL 4 NE LACEY 47.06N 122.74W
04/01/2015 E0.25 INCH THURSTON WA TRAINED SPOTTER
SMALL HAIL LASTED FOR APPROXIMATELY 5 MINTUES.
&&
JSMITHThe Seattle radar (KATX), 98 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:59 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
A lightning strike drove a couple out of their home in the south Seattle suburb of Federal Way.
The lightning late Wednesday afternoon hit a tree in the elderly couple’s front yard and traveled through the root system to the home. The lightning blew out drywall in the house, damaged the gutters and caused a gas line to rupture.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Washington in 2015Every state in 2015This day in weather historyWarnings in Washington, April 2015
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: 569791.