A thunderstorm hit downtown Boise shortly before noon Monday, bringing with it a combination of hail, graupel and wind gusts of up to 45 mph, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Stephen Parker.
Meteorologists had forecast thunderstorms, but they did not predict that the city center would experience the brunt of one, according to Parker.
“If you look at the radar, there are 100 miles in every direction where this is not happening,” Parker told the Statesman by phone. “It’s still beyond state-of-the-art (technology) to tell in advance exactly where these storms are going to form. So thunderstorms were not unexpected. Small hail was not unexpected. But to have this strong of a storm hit right into Boise, nobody would have had reason to expect that. There was a pretty low probability of that.”…