An otherwise showery spring day turned quickly stormy this evening! In this morning’s blog, I mentioned the marginal risk for severe storms issued for our area, which included that 2% chance for a tornado. As the day went along, there was no reason for the Storm Prediction Center to issue any watches, since storms were so isolated. They don’t issue watches unless more widespread severe is expected. When we’re just expecting isolated activity a watch isn’t issued.
Then, a storm suddenly became severe over Pleasant Hill and produced damage. A tornado warning wasn’t issued until the storm had passed through that community. It will take the NWS to confirm if it was, in fact, a tornado or straight-line winds.
If you’re weather radio didn’t go off in Pleasant Hill until after the storm had passed it’s because a warning wasn’t active until the storm had passed.
Sometimes these tornadoes spin up so fast a warning isn’t issued, as was the case today. Plus, the radar beam is so high up in the air by the time it hits the plateau that sometimes tornadoes don’t appear on the radar. That is especially the case with lower-end tornadoes.
Several people in Rinnie say they heard the storm go over and could hear the wind aloft.
The storm has moved out of the area and is no longer a threat.
We are in an unsettled pattern and more isolated strong to severe storms are possible through Saturday.