Extreme weather in western Washington (Seattle, Tacoma: condo, homes, tornado)

[rockyinyourradio]

Greetings! I'm some what new here to city-data. I find this site fascinating and can be a real time spoiler. I do have a question for any folks on here who are seasoned residents.. (at least 10 years or longer) or who are well aquainted with weather patterns in Washington state.

I currently live in central Oklahoma just outside of Oklahoma City. We have at most another 2 years here and we'll be gladly ready to move. My daughter is seriously considering a move to Washington state as is my son. They both have a big interest in the greater Seattle area. I have been to the PACNW a few times and loved visiting. My wife and I have considered following suit and locate somewhere close to where our kids want to be. I can easily see myself spending my later years out in the Seattle area (Olympia in particular) BUT.. there is one aspect of life I would have a hard time living without... experiencing a good thunderstorm!... I know... that may sound a little different. I'm a real weather freak, and this type of stuff I would really miss. I know that thunder and lightning are not that common to your area .. or is it?

My questions are, just how frequent are thunderstorms in the greater Seattle area? Is there any one place where they are more common than others.. what about the Olympia area verses places near the famed "Puget Sound convergence zone" between Seattle and Everett? Are there places that experience higher winds than others in these areas? What about severe weather like hail or even tornadoes? I do know that this type of phenomenon is uncommon but I am interested in anyone who has experienced some of these storms.. especially in Thurston County and the areas just north of Seattle. I am aware of the rainfall that occurs. That's no big deal for me as long as the sun eventually shines. So... if one would suggest a place where the weather tends to be most interesting.. where would it be around this region?? Definitely not your typical question, but I look forward to the responses.

Thanks for your time.
Rockyinyourradio

[mthomson]

Not much severe weather here. Thunder storms are very rare, unfortunately. I've never seen a tornado here (Pierce Cnty). Hail ocassionally, but it's small hail, not the golf ball sized hail of other regions.
Mostly, this is a very mild climate.

[Sweating in Florida]

Originally Posted by rockyinyourradio

Greetings! I'm some what new here to city-data. I find this site fascinating and can be a real time spoiler. I do have a question for any folks on here who are seasoned residents.. (at least 10 years or longer) or who are well aquainted with weather patterns in Washington state.

I currently live in central Oklahoma just outside of Oklahoma City. We have at most another 2 years here and we'll be gladly ready to move. My daughter is seriously considering a move to Washington state as is my son. They both have a big interest in the greater Seattle area. I have been to the PACNW a few times and loved visiting. My wife and I have considered following suit and locate somewhere close to where our kids want to be. I can easily see myself spending my later years out in the Seattle area (Olympia in particular) BUT.. there is one aspect of life I would have a hard time living without... experiencing a good thunderstorm!... I know... that may sound a little different. I'm a real weather freak, and this type of stuff I would really miss. I know that thunder and lightning are not that common to your area .. or is it?

My questions are, just how frequent are thunderstorms in the greater Seattle area? Is there any one place where they are more common than others.. what about the Olympia area verses places near the famed "Puget Sound convergence zone" between Seattle and Everett? Are there places that experience higher winds than others in these areas? What about severe weather like hail or even tornadoes? I do know that this type of phenomenon is uncommon but I am interested in anyone who has experienced some of these storms.. especially in Thurston County and the areas just north of Seattle. I am aware of the rainfall that occurs. That's no big deal for me as long as the sun eventually shines. So... if one would suggest a place where the weather tends to be most interesting.. where would it be around this region?? Definitely not your typical question, but I look forward to the responses.

Thanks for your time.
Rockyinyourradio

Olympia is about 1.5 - 2 hours(varies on traffic and ect.) south of Seattle in driving time in my experience living there. Olympia had a small population and a small town atmospere when I was last there in 2003. I personally don't like it there as it is lacking in development compared to the cities up north...... Although, It was and may still be cheaper for homes down that way. The weather may ever vary a little compared to Seattle(more snow?). I lived in western Washington for about 11 years(Fort Lewis/Tacoma, Federal Way and Spanaway).
The spring, fall, and winters were rainy(mostly cloudy and drizzle) seemed to average around the 50s-60s(daytime) and the coldest was about freezing point of 32 degrees a few times. We never had to shovel as their was no real accumulation. It did freeze over for a short time a few times. The summers(June, July, August --varies) were dry and could get up to the 80s and 90s. A few summers lasted until September with warm weather from the 70s- 80s. I don't ever remember hearing thunder or seeing lightening even though I am sure it existed.

[Sweating in Florida]

Addition: The weather in Washington this particular winter has been somewhat unusual and extreme in my opinion and with my experience living there. No tornadoes as it is far north and not in the path of warm tropical fronts (which are associated with them) that come up north in the southeast or in tornado valley midwest states.
There are minor earthquakes(rarely). Mount Rainier is a "volcano" and has ash like snow and a cloud of film for days when it errupts but this is not actual weather and it is extremely rare. Only certain cities/regions are in the "volcano" effect zone and have to worry at all. Sometimes, I think there is fludding associated with erruptions(???).

[DBM]

Correction Mt. Rainier hasn't erupted since at least the mid-1800s. It is an "active" volcano, but it has been dormant for a century and a half. Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980, with sporadic ash eruptions for the next few years. Since then, St. Helens has had several episodes of dome-building eruptions, where magma pushed up like toothpaste out of a tube -- there have been no explosive eruptions in at least 15 years, and no dusting of ash since the early 80's.

Olympia has occasional thunderstorms -- maybe 3-5 per year, but nothing like the thunderboomers of the mid-west or southeast. It does get hail more often -- maybe 5-7 times a year, but again nothing like the giant hailstones and storms of the mid-west.

Western Washington, like mthompson said above, has a pretty mild climate. It's cool and damp much of the year, and there is an occasional windstorm to liven things up, but there is nothing comparable to the wild weather of other parts of the country. You'll get a reminder of that weather now and again, but it won't be a dominant feature.

Good luck in your move.

[SEAATLTULSA]

I have lived in both Western and Eastern Washington, Idaho, Oklahoma and Georgia. In The North West the rain is nothing like that of the South! Atlanta gets the same or even more rain than Seattle. It is all about how it comes down! Hard down pour vs. a drizzle. Eastern Washington and Idaho would be the place for thunder storms, however not as frequent as the south.

[Dendrite]

Hi Rocky:

Most of the "extreme weather in western Washington" hits the "far left" (western) coastline. The coastline of the Olympic peninsula generally takes the brunt of whatever extreme weather western WA is going to get any given winter. Not always but generally speaking-

If you look at a WA map, you'll notice that Seattle and Olympia are "inland" so to speak, being nestled in the Puget Sound. As such, they are relatively protected weather wise and as mentioned (most of the time) have mostly mild weather.

Using that same map, if you trace your finger from about Port Angeles westward out to Neah Bay and then south along the coast down to around the Aberdeen area, that's where most of the "extreme" weather can happen. Storms blowing in from off shore occasionally produce some impressive winter weather primarily consisting of (very) high winds, big crashing waves and driving rain.

No need for a tornado shelter out here!

[j_k_k]

I lived sixteen years in Seattle and thunderstorms were almost as rare as snowstorms. Every few years we'd get a good snowstorm, and you could watch the fun as people panicked. I don't remember significant hail.

I now live on the side of the mountains that looks a little more like Oklahoma (and my Kansan homeland, which lets you know I'm familiar with the sort of thunderstorms you're talking about). We get a few, but ours are rarely the kind that could hold a kite to a good Kansas heavens-tearing-themselves-apart thunderstorm. No tornadoes to speak of. We had hail here once in twelve years, marble-size. It created so much water so fast I had to get out immediately and set up a hose as siphon to keep my basement from becoming a swamp. No time to even put on warm anything--just out there in shorts and flipflops on my knees in the icy water, then going all Linda Lovelace on the other end of a hose. (Borat voice : ) "Unhappy times."

[JoshGlzBrk]

Well, regarding this last weekend you can say we do get extreme weather sometimes. There was an actual tornado (F1) that touched down around ellensburg or around that area but that's the first ive heard of. We just got a huge storm this past weekend, and since I was vacationing for labor day in Ocean Shores in a condo.. I must say, that was the heaviest and loudest rain and wind I have ever heard in my life. It literally felt like the windows and glass sliding doors were going to break.

And during the winter it has been strange for the past few years, 2006 we had a very bad wind storm in December that cut power to over a million, 2007 we had bad floods, 2008 we had the most snow I have ever seen in my life at least 10 inches or more over the course of 2 weeks. This all happened right before christmas too so it ruined christmas for a lot of families, and then January we had another very bad flood. And these "bad' floods, cause I-5 to get closed down, with fish swimming across them lol. And the same idiots down in Centralia complain about it but they always rebuild in the same exact places.

I don't know if we will have big snow and rain this year, but based on the past few years it really seems likely.

[hamellr]

Just an FYI, by it's very definition, a Tornado is impossible as far North as Seattle. There was a bit of excitement a few years ago when one touched down near Denver as that was a record for furthest north one has ever been recorded.