Weird Western Weather - Some Busted

Chris Burt [JessePedia], author of "Extreme Weather" , contributed to this blog entry about weird western weather stories from yesterday:

: The NWS issued this statement last night: "2 TORNADO REPORTS HAVE ALREADY COME IN... BOTH FROM JUST SOUTH OF POLSON. ANOTHER TORNADO MAY HAVE TOUCHED DOWN NEAR WOODS BAY. ELSEWHERE... WIDESPREAD SEVERE WIND DAMAGE HAS BEEN REPORTED...ESPECIALLY IN LIBBY WHERE AMONG OTHER THINGS THE DRIVE IN THEATER WAS DESTROYED*" A later report listed the drive-in damage under "Wind Damage" but did report a tornado near Palson and estimated 70 mph wind gusts at multiple locations. The initial storm report for Libby indicated that Doppler rainfall estimates (see below) showed "EST 4 INCHES OF RAIN IN 1/2 HOUR" but this sentence was removed in a later re-issuance, which probably makes sense, as Chris' book points out, the U.S. record is only 7 inches in 30 minutes. Their official map today did not carry amounts over 1.5". Chris correctly points out that few, if any tornadoes have ever been reported in NW Montana so I'll be curious to see if NWS verifies the spotter report.

: Doppler estimates (see above) pegged 7.9" of rain from a thunderstorm in northern California, but the NWS later issued a statement saying that hail contamination (the radar misinterpreting heavy rain as hail) probably led to the estimate being too high. They were unsure, though, due to sparse rain gauges in the area. Same situation as Montana for the official map - no reports over 1.5"

: And this afternoon, CNN says that over 1,000 new wildfires have been reported so far this week. There are 70 fires over 100 acres in size and 15,000 firefighters are fighting them. Over 1 million acres are on fire now. Doesn't that sound just incredible? Well, according to the government, we're actually less active than this time last year.

*Remind anyone of "Twister?" Ironically, a drive-in theatre in Canada was demolished by a tornado shortly before it was to show the movie in 1996 (something I "blogged" about on the time to various weather email lists).