A climber died near the summit on Mount Rainier. There were high winds and low visibility at the time.
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 climber died near the summit on Mount Rainier. There were high winds and low visibility at the time.
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 Jun 11, 2:30 PM PST, 3 hours 30 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
330 PM PDT THU JUN 11 2015
.SYNOPSIS...LOW LEVEL ONSHORE FLOW WILL INCREASE TONIGHT AND FRIDAY
FOR LOW CLOUDS AND COOLER TEMPERATURES. LOW LEVEL FLOW WILL WEAKEN
OVER THE WEEKEND AND INTO THE FIRST PART OF NEXT WEEK FOR SUNNIER
AND WARMER WEATHER. LOW LEVEL ONSHORE FLOW WILL INCREASE LATER NEXT
WEEK FOR COOLER AND CLOUDIER WEATHER.
&&
.SHORT TERM...AN UPPER TROUGH WILL PASS TO THE NORTH TONIGHT. THIS
WILL STRENGTHEN THE LOW LEVEL ONSHORE FLOW. LOW CLOUDS HAVE ONCE
AGAIN BURNED OFF EVERYWHERE THIS AFTERNOON BUT THEY ARE EXPECTED TO
REFORM AT THE COAST THIS EVENING AND PUSH INLAND OVERNIGHT. THEY
WILL BURN OFF DURING THE DAY FRIDAY BUT TOWARDS THE COAST WILL
PROBABLY STAY MOSTLY CLOUDY UNTIL LATE AFTERNOON. HIGHS WILL COOL TO
NEAR NORMAL.
LOW LEVEL ONSHORE FLOW WILL START TO DECREASE AND TURN A LITTLE MORE
NORTHERLY SATURDAY. MODEL CROSS SECTIONS SHOW LESS MOISTURE COMPARED
TO FRIDAY. THIS SHOULD TRANSLATE TO MORE SUNSHINE SATURDAY AND
SLIGHTLY WARMER HIGHS.
THESE TRENDS WILL CONTINUE INTO SUNDAY. A WEAK UPPER RIDGE WILL MOVE
OVER THE AREA AND LOW LEVEL FLOW WILL BECOME MORE NORTHERLY. THIS
SHOULD RESULT IN PLENTY OF SUNSHINE AND HIGHS WARMING SEVERAL MORE
DEGREES. HIGHS WERE BUMPED UP FOR BOTH SATURDAY AND SUNDAY. SCHNEIDER
.LONG TERM...MODELS SHOW FURTHER WARMING ON MONDAY. THE GFS IS THE
MOST AGGRESSIVE SHOWING OFFSHORE FLOW AND A THERMAL TROUGH ALONG THE
COAST. THE ECMWF MAINTAINS SOME ONSHORE FLOW BUT ALSO WARMS THE LOW
LEVELS SEVERAL DEGREES. THIS IS QUITE A CHANGE FROM A FEW DAYS AGO
WHEN MODELS SHOWED AN UPPER LOW MOVING ONSHORE WITH COOL CLOUDY
WEATHER. HIGHS WERE BUMPED UP SEVERAL DEGREES FOR MONDAY BUT NOT AS
MUCH AS MODELS SUGGEST IT MIGHT WARM.
MODELS ALL SHOW A RETURN TO STRONGER ONSHORE FLOW FOR THE REST OF
THE WEEK NEXT WEEK WITH HIGHS COOLING TO NEAR NORMAL AND TYPICAL
MORNING CLOUDS AND AFTERNOON SUNSHINE. THE UPPER LOW THAT WAS
SUPPOSED TO BRING A CHANCE OF SHOWERS HAS NOW BEEN PUSHED BACK TO
WEDNESDAY OR THURSDAY IN THE ECMWF AND EVEN LATER IN THE WEEK IN THE
GFS. IF THE ECMWF IS CORRECT...THERE MIGHT BE SOME SHOWERS WEDNESDAY
OR THURSDAY BUT THE FORECAST IS DRY FOR NOW. SCHNEIDER
&&
.AVIATION...THE TAIL END OF AN UPPER LEVEL TROF OVER BRITISH
COLUMBIA WILL MOVE ACROSS THE AREA TONIGHT. THE FLOW ALOFT AND THE
LOW LEVEL FLOW WILL BE STRONG WLY AND STRONG ONSHORE...RESPECTIVELY.
LOOK FOR STRATUS TO BECOME WIDESPREAD ACROSS THE LOWLANDS OVERNIGHT.
BY 1200 UTC...CIGS SHOULD MAINLY BE IN THE 1500 TO 2500 FT RANGE
TOPS 045-055.
KSEA...NO MAJOR CHANGES TO THE PREVIOUS THINKING. SW WINDS WILL
BECOME NLY BETWEEN 0100 UTC AND 0300 UTC. LOOK FOR STRATUS TO
DEVELOP OVER THE TERMINAL AFTER 0900 UTC...WITH CIGS EXPECTED TO
BE NEAR 2K FT BY 1200 UTC.
&&
.MARINE...A 1033 MB HIGH WELL OFFSHORE WILL STRENGTHEN TO 1039 MB ON
FRI. THIS COMBINED WITH LOWER PRES E OF THE CASCADES WILL RESULT IN
MODERATE TO STRONG ONSHORE FLOW. THE OFFSHORE HIGH WILL WEAKEN THIS
WEEKEND...ALLOWING NORTHERLY FLOW TO DEVELOP ON SUNDAY. ONSHORE OR
WESTERLY FLOW WILL RETURN ON MON.
&&
.SEW WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
WA...NONE.
PZ...GALE WARNING CENTRAL AND EASTERN STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA.
.SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY ALL OTHER WATERS.
&&
WWW.WEATHER.GOV/SEATTLE
YOU CAN SEE AN ILLUSTRATED VERSION OF THIS FORECAST DISCUSSION AT
WWW.WEATHER.GOV/SEATTLE/GAFD/LATEST_WEBAFD.HTML1 cold/wind chill. Local standard time, as filed.
A climber died near the summit on Mount Rainier. There were high winds and low visibility at the time. The man had taken shelter in a crevasse, but went back to the summit to get his stove and was never seen alive again.
As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.
| Event | Date | Age | Sex | Where | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cold/Wind Chill, Cascades of Pierce and Lewis Counties | 2015-06-11 | 25 | Male | Outside/Open Areas | Direct |
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, June 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: 588313.