WENATCHEE — Flooding, mudslides, windstorms and arctic temperatures. The National Weather Service in Spokane picked its Top 10 weather events for 2013, and North Central Washington dominated the list.
Of the 10 events chosen, 7 were in or included parts of Chelan, Douglas, Okanogan and Grant counties.
The agency in Spokane covers northern Idaho and most of eastern Washington, except for the southeastern area from Yakima to Walla Walla.
Meteorologist Jeremy Wolf said summertime flooding and the mudslides that followed in the Wenatchee area and the east slopes of the North Cascades, were in some cases the result of unstable soil from previous wildfires, and in other cases were not.
The heavy rains and debris flows in and around Wenatchee, in the Colockum, and in Stehekin made up 3 of the 10 events.
“I don’t have any hard statistics as to how often this occurs, but it was pretty unusual for that area to have that many,” he said.
In addition, he said, the amount of damages in the Wenatchee area was significant.
Wolf said the 10 events were not rated, just listed in chronological order.
They included:
June 29, Aug. 2, Aug. 4 and Sept. 6: Wenatchee flooding. Flash flooding and debris flows became a common occurrence for residents of Number One and Two Canyon roads.
Aug. 9: Colockum/Tarpiscan Road mudslides. Slow-moving thunderstorms in the evening produced heavy rain southeast of Wenatchee. Rapid runoff produced flash flooding and mudslides. The heavy rain fell over a burn scar from a wildfire that occurred just weeks before the thunderstorms.
Aug. 25: Columbia Basin windstorm. A line of strong thunderstorms tracked northward across the Columbia Basin and into the northern mountains of Washington and Idaho during the evening. Winds between 55 and 70 mph created a wall of dust in the Basin, and widespread downed trees, power outages and property damage, including a roof blown off at the Coulee Dam Casino.
Aug. 29: Omak supercell. A “supercell” thunderstorm swept across the Okanogan Valley during the early afternoon. The storm produced widespread wind damage across the city of Omak, the Colville Indian Reservation and rural eastern Okanogan County. Photos show what appears to be a “gustnado.”
Sept. 6: Stehekin landslide. During the night, a debris slide occurred in the Imus Creek drainage. Heavy rain pushed mud and rocks across 350 feet of the Stehekin Valley Road. Mud was as deep as 8 feet and damaged dozens of cars and bicycles and a few buildings at Stehekin Landing.
Sept. 7: Chesaw funnel cloud. Photos of a funnel cloud between Molson and Chesaw lead meteorologists to believe a tornado may have passed trough, but National Weather Service officials could not confirm it, and there were no reports of damages. If it was a tornado, it may have been the only one in northeastern Washington this year.
Dec. 6-9: Arctic weather. The first arctic air mass to hit eastern Washington came for several days, with high temperatures barely climbing into the teens, and lows dipping to near or below zero. Temperatures in Wenatchee hit 3 degrees on Dec. 8, and in Omak it was 1 degree on Dec. 9.