By now, you may have seen the Seattle and Portland television weather forecasts which have utilized those dreaded words, “tornado potential”. Fortunately, the overall tornado risk is quite low, however, the thunderstorm risk for tomorrow and to a lesser degree on Thursday is a bit more significant. The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) has issued a marginal risk for severe thunderstorms on Wednesday. This may be upgraded to a slight risk, at some point over the next several hours. Most thunderstorms will be sub-severe; however, the strongest storms will have the potential to produce frequent lightning, severe wind gusts up to 60 mph and/or large hail up to the size of quarters.
The possibility of isolated severe thunderstorms cannot be ruled out completely, any time a severe thunderstorm occurs, it does have the possibility to spawn a tornado. If a severe thunderstorm is detected, it will automatically trigger a Hyper-Reach notification to locations that are in the forecast trajectory of the storm. It will also simultaneously trigger Emergency Alert Messaging on local broadcast stations and Wireless Emergency Alerts (similar to Amber Alerts) on your wireless devices. These alerts will be more widespread.
Thunderstorm Potential Wednesday 3/26/2025
20-40% chance for thunderstorms.
Most Likely Timing
- 10 AM through 8 PM PDT
Impacts
- Frequent lightning
- Heavy rain
- Hail (pee to quarter sized)
- Wind gusts up to 40-60mph, which could cause downed trees and power outages
