Seattle, Portland face rare severe thunderstorm threat with tornado and large hail risk Wednesday
The Pacific Northwest faces a rare level 2 out of 5 threat of severe thunderstorms on Wednesday afternoon. This area includes Seattle, Tacoma, Vancouver in Washington and Portland, Oregon.
Pacific Northwest faces rare severe weather threat Wednesday
Seattle and Portland are facing some of the greatest risks for severe weather, including large hail, damaging wind gusts and even a slight chance of tornadoes, on Wednesday.
SEATTLE – A meteorological rarity could unfold across the Pacific Northwest on Wednesday with large hail, damaging winds and the possibility of tornadoes forecast across the Interstate 5 corridor – a place where severe thunderstorms are nearly unheard of.
Warmer temperatures will help fuel thunderstorms across the Pacific Northwest on Wednesday afternoon and evening, prompting a rare severe weather potential outlook from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center (SPC) for the region.
The SPC has highlighted an area in the Pacific Northwest with a level 2 out of 5 threat of severe thunderstorms on Wednesday. This area includes Seattle, Tacoma, Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon.
THE 5-POINT SEVERE THUNDERSTORM RISK CATEGORY SCALE EXPLAINED
Wednesday's severe weather forecast for the Pacific Northwest.
(FOX Weather)
According to the FOX Forecast Center, Wednesday's forecast is the first level 2 threat for downtown Seattle since the SPC revamped its severe weather outlook system more than a decade ago.
A larger area across the Northwest, from the Pacific Northwest coast to western Idaho, including Boise, is under a lesser level 1 threat.
The primary concerns will be large hail and strong winds, but a brief tornado spin-up is also possible.
(FOX Weather)
The greatest threat on Wednesday will be hail, with quarter-to-egg-size hail possible with this storm. A highlighted area with the greatest potential for damaging hail includes most of the I-5 corridor, including Portland and Salem, Oregon and some southern and eastern Seattle suburbs.
(FOX Weather)
"I-5 from Eugene all the way through Seattle, you've got a tornado threat. I know it's weak, but it's there. It raises eyebrows," FOX Weather Meteorologist Bob Van Dillen said.
Meteorologists with the National Weather Service in Seattle said the strongest storms are likely to move northward east of the Puget Sound Wednesday along the I-5 corridor during the afternoon commute.