Severe Weather to Hit the Northern Rockies Again

                SPC has now given North Central Washington, The Idaho Panhandle, and North Western Montana a slight chance of severe weather this Friday. While there seems to be no imminent threat for tornadoes in the highlighted areas, there is a 15% chance of a severe storms developing within the given area.  Looking at the forecast models, the hardest hit areas will involve the northern and central Cascade Mountains with a widespread chance of a quarter to half an inch of rain within a three hour period. Strong humidity will spread across the region with winds varying from nine to twenty three knots. Dew points are expected to stay mild with hot temperatures. With a mix of low sheer and a strong CAPE, the chance for tornadoes will be low, though strong winds, heavy rains, frequent and dangerous lightning, and hail to reside. Storm are expected to fire fairly early (11am PDT to 3pm PDT) and develop further from there.  Because the low pressure system that is moving its way north will be aided by cold air, the most common cells that are predicted to form will be multicell’s and supercells- though large hail will be the primary threat.



At the moment our team is planning to head up to the northern portion of the highlighted area for a possible deployment, as we have been on the road and collecting our data since the 7^th of July. Though we have not seen a tornado yet, we have taken data from a wall cloud. Our most productive days have so far fallen on the 10^th, 14^th, 15th, and hopefully the 20^th.

                On the 10,^th while we were able to do our deployment we did face quite the serious threat- lighting. Though we were already well aware of the strong threat for the electrical discharge, we did expect it to be as frequent as it was- especially when it struck 500 yards to the south west of where we were deploying.  We collected data on several other storms in both the Bitterroot and Big Hole Valley of South Western Montana. Add an eerie orange and purple glow to the skies due to the many wildfires in the area and we had ourselves on heck of a chase day.