You read the headline right — a weak and brief tornado was confirmed in Thurston County, WA, on Friday afternoon according to preliminary data from the local National Weather Service.
The quick touchdown happened just minutes before 2 PM PT to the southeast of Grand Mound, which is along the I-5 corridor south of Olympia. The NWS in Seattle determined that this was a tornado based on videos taken by people in the area, and did not do a storm survey. Both media as well as the radar at the time this occurred were used to make this evaluation.
Because there was no damage or injuries from this storm, the team ranked it an EF-U, which means the peak winds were unknown. This is a preliminary rating, and there would need to be confirmed damage to rate it on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.
The tornado was estimated to have a width of less than 50 feet with a path of under 100 feet, being on the ground for less than one minute.
Tornadoes rarely happen in the Evergreen State, as they are one of numerous states out west that average less than 5 per year.
A little more #tornado trivia for you on this Friday evening. While tornadoes are not common around here and are usually of the weak variety, the state of Washington actually averages 3 tornadoes a year! #wawx pic.twitter.com/TGLT50cIiT
— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) October 5, 2019
You can read the full report here from the National Weather Service:
Here is a preliminary summary of the tornado event in the Grand Mount/Tenino area this afternoon. #wawx pic.twitter.com/W8rUilbeFO
— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) October 4, 2019