An area of low pressure moved through Eastern Washington and the resulting thunderstorms allowed a weak tornado to form near Spokane, WA.
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The episode as NWS OTX wrote it up.
An area of low pressure moved through Eastern Washington and the resulting thunderstorms allowed a weak tornado to form near Spokane, WA.
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 Aug 9, 3:35 PM PST, 1 hour earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Spokane WA 435 PM PDT Tue Aug 9 2016 .SYNOPSIS... A deep and slow moving low pressure system will move across the area through Wednesday. This low will bring cooler temperatures and the threat of showers and thunderstorms. A drying and warming trend will develop late in the week before the next chance of showers possibly Sunday. The hottest temperatures in the forecast will be Saturday with above normal readings in the upper 80s and 90s. && .DISCUSSION... Tonight: Showers and thunderstorms will continue to pivot around an upper-level low which is slowly tracking through the region. A majority of the lightning strikes so far have been across SE WA and the lower ID Panhandle where the center of the low and afternoon sun breaks have resulted in 400-500 J/kg CAPE. The lack of shear aloft is resulting in slow storm motion but also short- lived bursts of moderate to heavy rain. Consequently, the heaviest cells look to only be depositing between 0.30-0.50". Expect this activity to continue for the next few hours then start to wane after 5PM. Meanwhile north and west of the low, a combination of a persistent cloud shield and subsidence aloft has resulted in little to no convective shower activity up to this point but this is expected to change this evening. Some showers and stray thunderstorm may impact the Northern Cascades but HRRR has been backing off on this activity and CAMS indicate shallow convection up to this point. East of the Hwy 97 corridor, specifically across the Okanogan Highlands and Upper Columbia Basin, current thinking is a disturbance pivoting on the backside of the low will bring a renewed threat for showers and thunderstorms between 5-10PM. Once developed, this activity is expected to drift east as the low begins to track to the northeast. Confidence how fast this occurs is low with some of the Hi-res modeling now stalling this feature until after midnight. /sb Thursday night through Tuesday: Warming and drying trend for Thur night through Saturday as an upper level ridge builds along the west coast and then moves inland Friday and Saturday. Saturday will be the warmest day as the thermal trough intensifies over the region. Temperatures will top out about 8 degrees above average for this time of the year, or valley temps in the upper 80s to mid 90s. There continues to be some disagreement of the shortwave trough that moves into the area Sat night/Sunday. The GFS has the main energy moving across WA, while the ECMWF is slower and digs the stronger energy to the south. Neither model shows anything too terribly exciting...though the GFS is hinting at some moisture streaming up from the south ahead of the front which could prompt some nocturnal showers or thunderstorms during the overnight hours and into early Sunday morning for SE WA and the central ID Panhandle. For now have kept with the idea of an increase in clouds and don't have any mention of weather. Sunday as the trough moves through do have a mention of mountain showers and thunderstorms, though the moisture fields seem to be lacking. Winds will increase across the east slopes around Wenatchee and into the Waterville Plateau and George area starting in the afternoon and continuing through the night. Once the trough exits to our east Sunday night/early Monday we get under a broad westerly flow. Models are not suggesting any sort of cool down per-se and so have increased temps Mon and Tue back up above average for this time of the year. /Nisbet && .AVIATION... 00Z TAFS: Scattered showers and thunderstorms will continue to pivot around an upper tonight as it migrates east-northeast from southeast WA/lower ID into western MT by morning. The threat of thunderstorms will be best before 11 PM, though a few may linger overnight. The best threat be over the eastern TAF sites with the main impacts potential as locally heavy rain, with hail and lightning secondary threat. Brief MVFR conditions possible in the heavier storms/showers but VFR conditions are expected to dominate. EAT will see some breezy conditions this evening on the backside of the low. Going into Wednesday the main threat of showers/t-storms will shift toward north and eastern mountains, while the remainder of the TAF sites dry out. /J. Cote' && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Spokane 55 77 58 85 60 88 / 50 20 10 10 0 0 Coeur d'Alene 52 75 54 84 56 86 / 50 20 10 10 0 0 Pullman 52 76 52 84 53 88 / 50 10 10 10 0 0 Lewiston 56 83 59 90 63 94 / 50 10 10 10 0 0 Colville 55 79 54 87 54 91 / 50 30 20 10 0 0 Sandpoint 52 72 51 80 52 84 / 50 30 20 10 10 0 Kellogg 50 70 51 79 54 83 / 70 30 20 10 10 0 Moses Lake 55 83 57 90 59 94 / 20 10 10 0 0 0 Wenatchee 55 84 61 89 64 93 / 10 10 10 0 0 0 Omak 56 85 59 91 62 93 / 30 20 10 10 0 0 && .OTX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... ID...None. WA...None. &&
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SPOKANE WA 502 PM PDT TUE AUG 9 2016 IDZ001>004-026-027-WAZ031>038-041>044-110015- NORTHERN PANHANDLE-COEUR D'ALENE AREA-IDAHO PALOUSE- CENTRAL PANHANDLE MOUNTAINS-LEWISTON AREA- LEWIS AND SOUTHERN NEZ PERCE COUNTIES-NORTHEAST BLUE MOUNTAINS- LOWER GARFIELD AND ASOTIN COUNTIES-WASHINGTON PALOUSE- MOSES LAKE AREA-UPPER COLUMBIA BASIN-SPOKANE AREA- NORTHEAST MOUNTAINS-OKANOGAN HIGHLANDS-WENATCHEE AREA- EAST SLOPES NORTHERN CASCADES-OKANOGAN VALLEY-WATERVILLE PLATEAU- 502 PM PDT TUE AUG 9 2016 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF NORTH IDAHO... NORTH CENTRAL IDAHO...CENTRAL WASHINGTON...EAST CENTRAL WASHINGTON...NORTH CENTRAL WASHINGTON...NORTHEAST WASHINGTON AND SOUTHEAST WASHINGTON. .DAY ONE...TONIGHT NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.
The Spokane radar (KOTX), 3 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 00:35 UTC.
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
A member of the public reported a very weak and short lived tornado. It was further noted to be more or less a cold core funnel tha briefly touched down off of Flint Road about 2 miles northeast of Airway Heights, WA. No damage was reported.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Washington in 2016Every state in 2016This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Washington, 2016Warnings in Washington, August 2016
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: 642267.