Weather forecasts have a tendency to over-exaggerate the severity of conditions to protect people venturing out unsafely, but when NOAA predicted “severe thunderstorms” for last Saturday, there was no exaggeration. A National Weather Service weather spotter reported 85 mile per hour winds in Madras though the official report at the airport there was 57 mph.
A private wind station just outside The Dalles reported a gust of 61 miles per hour, though the official station at the Columbia Gorge Regional Airport showed winds in the 35 to 40 mph range
Social media reports said most of Sherman County escaped serious damage, but in Grass Valley, several cars were struck by downed trees and a number of trees around the Grass Valley Pavilion losing limbs.
The storm also dropped golf ball-sized hailstones in a swath covering parts of Jefferson and Deschutes counties.
The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office reported dozens of trees and power lines down in south Deschutes County according to a post on its Facebook page, along with 70 mph winds and more of the golf ball-sized hail near La Pine.
The Central Oregon Daily News said nearly 10,000 Pacific Power customers in Crooked River Ranch, Culver, Prineville and Hood River were without power for a time Saturday.
Bend’s KTVZ reported Sunriver Fire Captain Benjamin O’Keefe said a two-foot-diameter tree smashed through the roof of an occupied home on Timber Lane, with no injuries reported, while another tree about the same size did the same to an unoccupied home on Pro Staff Lane. Another resident of the community said seven trees around her house were down, though none fell on her house.
KTVZ also reported more than 1,100 lightening strikes in the region, and photos that showed what appeared to be partial funnel clouds. National Weather Service-Pendleton meteorologist Marc Austin told the station the storm was definitely rotating. “It was a super-cell thunderstorm,” he said. “We’ve had a few of those today. But not all super-cell thunderstorms create tornadoes that reach the ground.”
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