The movement of humid, unstable air Southwest Monsoon into the Northwest did not disappoint: as shown by the 24-hour lightning map ending at 1 am this morning, hundreds of lightning bolts were observed across the region. area.
There are some bands of thunderstorms and lightning. One was along the coast and another moved up to eastern Oregon and was really hit hard around Walla Walla and far from SE Washington. A narrow strip crosses Tacoma to Vashon Island.
Monsoon moisture stream… from the south-west of the desert..is clearly seen in the steam satellite image from yesterday morning (5am Wednesday morning)
Dew points … a good measure of atmospheric water vapor content – very high east of Washington, mid-60s in areas of eastern WA, eastern Oregon and Idaho (see below at noon today) Wednesday). That’s unusually high for a normally dry area.
Today the moisture plume has moved slowly to the east (see satellite images from tonight).
Thus, the only thunderstorm this afternoon in our area is in the far east of Washington and Oregon (see radar images from tonight). Some of them have heavy rain or hail (red).
According to the latest modeling, monsoon humidity and accompanying thunderstorms will move even further east tomorrow, with Friday’s 5 p.m. forecast showing thunderstorms over Idaho and east Monday. (see below)
A dry weekend is coming with temperatures warming up!
