Power Outage in Yakima, WA

Local news reported trees and power lines down on cars and homes in a mobile home park near East 3rd St. and East E St.

Yakima Herold reported to NWS that a blue spruce tree fell to the ground in West Valley with flooding along a pasture. Another car nearby was smashed by a falling tree. Several power outages were observed.

Strong gusty winds downed power lines and trees. Heavy rainfall caused minor flooding.

A weather spotter reported .50 inches of rain in 30 minutes in Yakima from a nearly stationary storm. This resulted in deep water on 56th Avenue and Summitview in Yakima, with cars stalling out and forcing a lane closure. During the storm, 60 Pacific Power customers lost electricity.

Strong winds associated with a thunderstorm knocked down several trees, and knocked out power to about 750 customers. A weather spotter five miles east of Yakima reported a wind gust to 55 MPH at 4:59 PM PST. The Yakima ASOS at the Yakima airport reported a peak wind gust to 53 MPH at 4:54 PM PST. The property damage from this event is estimated at $2,000.

Lightning knocked out power to 4,000 customers in Yakima. The storms produced hail and flooding on some intersections.

A major severe weather event by Pacific Northwest standards occurred over central and northeast Oregon and southeast Washington on May 30th. A powerful upper level storm system moved across the area during the afternoon and evening helping to trigger severe thunderstorms. The airmass was unusually unstable for this area of the country with surface dewpoints well into the 60s. With strong upper level winds in place the stage was set for numerous fast moving intense storms through the afternoon and early evening. Numerous reports of damaging winds were received across southeast Washington as the storms moved through.

An upper level disturbance moved north from central Oregon into eastern Washington during the evening. Triple digit temperatures during the day provided ample instability for locally severe thunderstorms. Pacific Power reported around 2,000 customers between Wapato and Selah lost power due to the storm.

Strong wind gusts associated with thunderstorms knocked down power lines in Selah and damaged pole equipment.

Several severe thunderstorms crossed the Lower Yakima Valley, causing tremendous damage to structures and the area's fruit crops. Hail, combined with high winds, bruised or knocked off many of the region's cherries, apples, pears, and grapes. Much of the agricultural damage was concentrated around the towns of Zillah and Toppenish. A representative with the Northwest State Horticultural Council estimated that around 1/3 of the state's entire cherry crop, a 120 million dollar industry, was lost. The storms, which occurred near the beginning of the cherry harvest, threw an estimated 6000 industry employees out of work. Widespread high winds estimated at 70 mph or more damaged several buildings in Grandview and caused power outages that affected around 15,000 customers in the towns of Toppenish, Buena and Zillah. In Zillah, the roof of one home was completely blown away, while in Buena, twenty eight distribution poles and two major transmission lines were downed. A tractor-trailer truck was blown on its side, closing State Highway 22 for 3 hours near Toppenish. Along Highway 97 one mile north of Toppenish, a billboard and many power poles were knocked down.