‘Striking’ lightning storms, freezing cold snaps mark Washington’s year in weather

The year began and ended with a cold snap. In between it was relatively mild or warm. But the recent December cold snap resulted in the coldest temperatures of year with readings in the teens during the 7th and 8th. While the warmest temperatures occurred in late June with
many locations reaching into the lower 90s and again on Sept. 11.

For the year, precipitation was below average ranging from three to nine inches below average by mid-December.

There were wet periods though including April and September. Both Sea-Tac Airport and Olympia had their wettest Septembers ever on record with 6.17 inches and 9.36 inches respectively.

In contrast, there was a nearly two month stretch from late June until late August with only about a quarter of an inch of rain for another fine summer. July was the driest month ever at both Olympia and Sea-Tac Airports with no precipitation in the rain gauges.

Damaging storms were few and far between. Probably the most “striking” storms were the lightning events on Aug. 9 & 10, and Sept. 5 & 15. Each event produced several thousand lightning strikes with the last event caused a pause in the Seattle Seahawks game versus the San Francisco 49ers at CenturyLink Field.

Thunderstorms also produced two weak tornadoes in the state. The first was on March 21 near Hockinson in Clark County and the second near Frederickson in Pierce County on Sept. 30. A waterspout was also spotted on Oct. 2 off Westport, as well as two funnel clouds observed – one in Okanogan County and the other over Vancouver.

State Route 20 in the North Cascades was the target of two heavy rain events on Aug. 11 and Sept. 5 that resulted in local flash flooding and landslides – closing the highway for a period of time.

There were two fatalities this year, both involving avalanches near Snoqualmie Pass on April 13. There were also 11 injuries, seven of them involving avalanches including six with that April 13 event. Two
were struck by lightning including a motorcyclist riding on I-5 near Chehalis and one person hurt by a falling tree during a thunderstorm related wind event near Silverdale.

Weather resulted in property damages approaching $900,000 with statistics from November and December yet to be compiled.

The year started with neutral conditions not La Nina or El Nino. This is the first time there have been back to back neutral winter seasons since the winters of 1992-93 and 1993-94. Neutral winters usually produce active hazardous weather, but the winter of 2012-13 was relatively tranquil.

This fall has been showing signs of active weather with the wet September, a strong wind event on November 2 that resulted in over 200,000 people without power and closing the Evergreen Point Bridge for a few hours and then the recent December cold snap.