1997 tornadoes in Washington

14 tornadoes touched down in Washington in 1997, 443 percent above the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

1996 1999 The whole country in 1997

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
F2113 to 157 mph
Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.
F3158 to 206 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
F5261 to 318 mph
Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.
Unrated
The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Every tornado in Washington in 1997

May 31 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 31	12:40 PM PDT	F1	Lincoln	12.0	50	$300,000
May 31	1:45 PM PDT	F1	Spokane	5.0	50	$350,000
May 31	3:15 PM PDT	F1	Pierce	0.5	10	$150,000
May 31	5:45 PM PDT	F0	Clark	0.5	20	$10,000

July 21 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
July 21	4:15 PM PDT	F1	Okanogan	5.0	100	$10,000
July 21	4:15 PM PDT	F1	Okanogan	5.0	100	$10,000
July 21	4:55 PM PDT	F1	Stevens	1.0	100	$20,000
July 21	4:55 PM PDT	F1	Stevens	1.0	100	$20,000

August 24 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 24	6:11 PM PDT	F0	Snohomish	0.5	20

August 26 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
August 26	2:30 PM PDT	F0	Yakima	1.0	23
August 26	5:15 PM PDT	F0	Okanogan	0.1	50
August 26	5:22 PM PDT	F0	Grays Harbor	0.5	20

September 15 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
September 15	7:40 PM PDT	F0	Clark	0.1	10

December 23 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
December 23	11:15 PM PST	F0	Grays Harbor	0.3	13

Nearby

Every tornado in Washington since 1950 Warnings in force in Washington The live radar over Washington

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.