What the hail?!? Storm rolls into Boise, bringing precipitation and 45 mph wind gusts
A thunderstorm hit downtown Boise shortly before noon Monday, bringing with it a combination of hail, graupel and wind gusts of up to 45 mph, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Stephen Parker.
Meteorologists had forecast thunderstorms, but they did not predict that the city center would experience the brunt of one, according to Parker.
“If you look at the radar, there are 100 miles in every direction where this is not happening,” Parker told the Statesman by phone. “It’s still beyond state-of-the-art (technology) to tell in advance exactly where these storms are going to form. So thunderstorms were not unexpected. Small hail was not unexpected. But to have this strong of a storm hit right into Boise, nobody would have had reason to expect that. There was a pretty low probability of that.”
Parker said he took a measurement at 1 p.m. near the Boise Airport, and his reading showed that Boise received 0.13 inches of liquid and 0.2 inches of hail.
The Idaho storm came out of southern Canyon County and grew strong as it approached Boise, according to Parker. The storm was heading northeast Monday afternoon and was making its way into the mountains, he said.
The Treasure Valley should expect additional periods of rain throughout Monday and potentially overnight, though Parker said it was unlikely that downtown Boise would experience a second strong storm.
The National Weather Service was calling for scattered showers to continue Tuesday and Wednesday, brought on by an elongated area of relatively low atmospheric pressure known as a trough.
“We have a large upper-level trough coming towards us right now,” Parker said. “It’s going to move through slowly over the next couple of days. That’s what’s going to give us this unsettled, showery weather in the next few days. And as that moves off, an upper-level ridge will build in behind that, which will bring us sunny skies and much warmer weather.”
Luckily, that ridge, which is an elongated area of high pressure in the atmosphere, means Bosieans won’t have to keep shivering much longer. Parker predicted that temperatures would be back around 70 by Monday. But the rest of this week will be cool, with highs each day in the 50s, until Southwest Idaho breaks into the 60s on Sunday.
