Extremely rare EF2 tornado rips through Seattle area, strongest to hit Washington state since 1986 - UPDATE

The Weather Network
Wed, 19 Dec 2018 02:07 UTC

© TedLandk5/ Twitter

A powerful tornado tore through a Seattle-area town on Tuesday afternoon, damaging homes and vehicles along its path.

The twister touched down just before 2 p.m. local time, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), raking through the Puget Sound community of Port Orchard, about 13 miles west of Seattle.

Images of significant damage to homes and trees in the area quickly started appearing on social media as well as via local news agencies. There are no reports of any injuries at this time.

The NWS will send a survey team on Wednesday morning to asses the damage and classify the intensity of the storm. "Until we conduct a tornado survey tomorrow morning, we can not speculate on the strength of the tornado," the weather agency said via Twitter.

RARE STORM

While tornadoes occur in every month of the year in the United States, they aren't particularly common in the Pacific Northwest, and especially not in December. Washington averages only 2.5 tornadoes per year. If Tuesday's tornado is rated EF-2 or higher, it would become the first 'significant' tornado (those EF-2 or higher) in Washington state since 1986, and the first significant December tornado in the state since 1969.

Even more unusual: if the storm is rated EF-2 (or higher), Washington state will match Texas for the number of EF-2 storms in December -- 1. Washington state has no EF-4 or EF-5 tornadoes on record.

TORNADO TOUCHES DOWN NEAR SEATTLE

Comment:

UPDATE: On 20th Dec. AP reports:

An extremely rare tornado that touched down west of Seattle was the strongest to hit Washington state since 1986, the National Weather Service said Wednesday.

A Weather Service storm team surveyed the damage just south of Port Orchard, Washington, and rated the twister an Ef2 on the Enhanced Fujita scale with top wind speeds of up to 130 mph (210 kph). The scale rates an Ef2 as "significant."

In five minutes Tuesday afternoon, the twister's 1.4 mile-path (2.3 kilometers) tore roofs off homes, shattered windows and toppled large fir trees, but no injuries have been reported.