Rare severe thunderstorms rolled through the Pacific Northwest Thursday night, bringing hundreds of lightning strikes, wind gusts over 60 mph and large and potentially damaging hail to the region.
Building heat with highs in the 90s in the Columbia Basin Thursday afternoon interacted with an incoming low pressure center pushing into the region from California.
PHOTOS | Viewer pictures of lightning, stormy skies
This unusual pairing created the atmospheric dynamics we needed to trigger “supercell” style thunderstorms in Oregon, Washington and Idaho by Thursday evening.
As such, an overall SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH was in place for cities like Spokane, Yakima and Wenatchee…