A brief tornado was spotted and recorded by the public in the Bend area during a period showers and thunderstorms.
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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 PDT wrote it up.
A brief tornado was spotted and recorded by the public in the Bend area during a period showers and thunderstorms.
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 Pendleton, OR wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 13, 12:56 PM PST, 3 hours 4 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Pendleton OR 156 PM PDT Thu Apr 13 2017 .SHORT TERM...tonight through Sunday. Upper low centered offshore with a southwest flow over the region. Front continues to move slowly into Idaho this afternoon. Most of the forecast area to the west of the frontal boundary has received some sunshine today. With weak instability cumulus and scattered showers are developing. Expect this will increase in coverage and intensity with showers and possible isolated thunderstorms into the evening. These showers will then dissipate overnight. A short wave and weak low will cross southern and central Oregon overnight into Fri morning. This will bring a period of rain and higher elevation snow from the John Day highlands across the Blues into Wallowa county. Will have several inches of snow accumulation above 4000 feet. By Friday the flow aloft becomes more westerly. Skies will remain partly to mostly cloudy with scattered showers. An upper ridge will start building in Friday night with clearing skies. Expect partly to mostly sunny Saturday. The ridge will remain over the area into Sunday with fair weather. High temperatures over the weekend will be in the 50s to mid 60s. Overnight lows will be cold with 20s to mid 30s. 94 .LONG TERM...Sunday Night through Thursday...An upper level low will move across northern CA and southern OR Sunday afternoon through Monday morning. Confidence in the exact track and timing of this system is low with the ECMWF model much faster than the GFS. I used a model blend to smooth out the timing. Showers will begin in Central OR and spread north and east. Monday afternoon through Thursday a broad upper level trough will shift slowly east over the eastern Pacific. Multiple system will move through this trough into the WA and OR bringing bands of rain/mountain snow showers. However, confidence is low in the timing and strength of each individual system. Snow levels will vary between 4000 and 5500 feet through this period. Temperatures will generally run near to or slightly below seasonal. Coonfield && .AVIATION...0Z TAFs...Clearing skies will lead to the development of cumulus clouds this afternoon and eventually isolated to scattered showers this afternoon. Best chances of seeing a shower pass over the field will be at KRDM, KBDN, KPDT and KALW. There will also be the potential for a few stray thunderstorms over the area. The chances of storms at a any TAF site are low and will not mention at this time. Overall VFR conditions are expected, though a heavy shower could lower conditions briefly. Sustained winds are expected to be 15 kts or less. 76 && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... PDT 38 53 34 57 / 30 30 20 10 ALW 41 54 38 59 / 20 30 20 10 PSC 41 60 37 63 / 20 20 20 10 YKM 37 58 34 60 / 20 20 20 10 HRI 40 58 36 61 / 20 20 20 10 ELN 36 53 33 56 / 20 20 20 10 RDM 29 49 24 55 / 40 20 20 10 LGD 33 47 29 52 / 80 80 40 20 GCD 31 45 24 53 / 60 50 40 10 DLS 40 56 38 62 / 30 30 30 10 && .PDT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... OR...None. WA...None. && 94/76/76
The Portland,OR radar (KRTX), 230 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 00:03 UTC.
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
Brief apparent tornado lifting tumble weeds on Jewell school grounds. Lasted about a minute and moved off into an empty field before dissipating. No damage reported. Also 1/2 inch of hail accumulation with stones around 1/4 to 3/8 inches in diameter. Track estimated.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Oregon in 2017Every state in 2017This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Oregon, 2017Warnings in Oregon, April 2017
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: 690720.