Intense thunderstorm topples trees, floods fields and highway
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PABLO — Sunday’s damaging thunderstorm cut through a narrow swath of Lake County Sunday, with most of the havoc hitting Pablo.
Just before noon, a strong gust of wind downed 20 trees in the Pablo area. One uprooted tree landed on a house southwest of Clairmont Road and U.S. Highway 93. Another tree fell across the walking path south of Pablo, and a portion had to be removed from the southbound lanes of Highway 93.
The thunderstorm delivered heavy rain and flooding that continued for nearly an hour. By 12:30 p.m., the National Weather Service had issued two warnings for the Pablo area, one for flooding and one for flash flooding.
A warning coordination meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Missoula was in the area Monday, assessing exactly what type of meteorological phenomena occurred.
Although it wasn’t confirmed by press time, the damaging gust was likely a wet microburst, according to Dave Noble, meteorologist with the NWS in Missoula.
A microburst is an intense downdraft capable of producing winds exceeding 100 miles per hour, causing significant damage.
“The meteorologist will look at the crops and the direction the trees were blown down,” Noble said. “There were lots of reports of very heavy rain, almost tropical in nature, more than 1 inch per hour.”
One weather spotter west of Pablo reported a half-inch of rain in just 15 minutes, according to Noble.
Two storms were actually converging upon each other, and the strong wind helped to produce other thunderstorms north and west of Pablo, according to Noble.
Noble also noted that weather patterns over the next few days may produce more “monsoonal moisture” as wet thunderstorms come up from the southwestern United States.
That’s not good news for local farmers who are in the process of cutting hay, or for those whose fields were smashed by the deluge.
Although longtime Ronan farmers Phyllis and Bill Hocker’s only loss was some broken tree branches on their farm, their neighbor’s grain field was flattened by Sunday’s storm.
“We were really concerned, but it seems to be coming back,” Phyllis Hocker said.
The isolated storm didn’t bring much angst to Polson. A lightning strike ignited a tree on Dubay Road, south of the Turtle Lake area of Polson.
“But it was raining so dang hard (that) we put a little water on it, and it was out,” said Karen Sargeant, public information officer for Polson Volunteer Fire Department.
“And for once, everyone was smart enough to come off the lake.”
