SEATTLE – A meteorological rarity could unfold across the Pacific Northwest on Wednesday afternoon and evening with large hail, damaging winds and the possibility of tornadoes forecast across the Interstate 5 corridor – a place where severe thunderstorms are nearly unheard of.
Warmer temperatures will help fuel thunderstorm development across the Pacific Northwest, prompting a rare severe weather outlook for the region from NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center (SPC).
This graphic shows the severe weather threat in the Pacific Northwest on Wednesday, March 26, 2025.
(FOX Weather)
The SPC has highlighted an area in the Pacific Northwest with a level 2 out of 5 threat of severe thunderstorms Wednesday. This area includes Seattle, Tacoma and Vancouver in Washington and Portland in Oregon.
According to the FOX Forecast Center, Wednesday’s forecast is the first level 2 threat for downtown Seattle since the SPC revamped its severe weather outlook system more than a decade ago.
The tornado threat in Portland is the highest threat ever issued by the SPC. It’s also the farthest northwest such an outlook has been issued in the Lower 48.
The Washington Emergency Management Division warned that not all residents in the area are aware of the severe weather threat Wednesday, which is concerning.
“Talk to your neighbors,” officials said on Facebook. “I (the Public Information Officer posting this) just talked to three neighbors, and they had no idea. Knock on some doors, talk to folks in your lobby, wave at neighbors in yards and just give them a heads-up.”
A larger area across the Northwest, from the Pacific Northwest coast to western Idaho, including Boise, is under a level 1 threat.
THE 5-POINT SEVERE THUNDERSTORM RISK CATEGORY SCALE EXPLAINED
This graphic shows the tornado threat in the Pacific Northwest on Wednesday, March 26, 2025.
(FOX Weather)
The primary concerns will be large hail and strong winds, but tornadoes are possible.
The SPC said that supercell thunderstorms could develop west of the Cascades across Oregon and Washington, which could produce “a tornado or two.”
“The majority of folks in Washington and Oregon are going to experience lightning, downpours, gusty winds,” FOX Weather Meteorologist Britta Merwin said. “But hail – and even an isolated tornado – that will be the isolated but very important threat to communicate.”
Quarter- to egg-sized hail will be possible within storms that develop. A highlighted area with the greatest potential for damaging hail includes most of the I-5 corridor, including Seattle and Tacoma in Washington and Portland and Salem in Oregon.
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(FOX Weather)
“I think the hail threat will be more widespread than the tornado,” FOX Weather Meteorologist Kendall Smith said. “It’s just, you know, obviously it takes one tornado to change your life. Usually, tornadoes in the Northwest are short-lived. They’re rather weak. It’s not like a huge EF-5 that you see in the middle of Oklahoma, which, by the way, even that is extremely rare.”
Meteorologists with the National Weather Service in Seattle said the strongest storms are likely to move northward east of the Puget Sound along the I-5 corridor during the Wednesday afternoon commute.
