A barrage of lightning strikes numbering in the tens of thousands pummeled Washington state as multiple waves of thunderstorms moved through on Saturday.
Statewide, there were 86,714 lightning strikes detected by the National Lightning Detection Network. That’s about 62% of the state’s annual lightning average and more than the entire lightning the state received in 2006 (82,710).
The first wave of lightning storms went through in the morning, bringing an early wake up call to those trying to sleep in.
In Western Washington, thunderstorms rolled up the I-5 corridor, triggering some rare Severe Thunderstorm Warnings with two lightning strikes exploding trees in Kirkland and Woodinville.
“I could tell it was close because the whole house shook and I could hear what sounded like a crack,” one neighbor said. “Then a piece of wood came flying into our yard!“
A tree in Woodinville didn’t fare any better:
Check out this lighting strike off Woodinville -Duvall Road. Remember to stay inside during lighting storms #wawx pic.twitter.com/Fr95nzoqGd
— Woodinville Fire (@WoodinvilleFire) May 31, 2020
In Western Washington, sensors with the National Lightning Detection Network calculated 15,755 lightning strikes – 4,119 that struck the ground (the rest were within the clouds).
A second line of severe thunderstorms then moved into Central and Eastern Washington Saturday evening, bringing wind gusts of 60-70 mph and large hail.
And of course, amid all the chaos, a whole lot of lightning.
Trees were reported down in Prosser, Union Gap and Wenatchee with a wind gust reported to 60 mph in Pullman and 58 mph in Spokane.
Statewide, there were 86,714 lightning strikes detected by the National Lightning Detection Network. That’s about 62% of the state’s annual lightning average and more than the entire lightning the state received in 2006 (82,710).
It’s the second year in a row the state has been hammered by lightning. Last year the state saw over 250,000 strikes.
In #WAwx, a total of 86,714 #lightning events were detected by the National Lightning Detection Network. This is 61.8% of the annual average, more than were detected in ALL of 2016 (82,710), and 1/3 of what was detected last year (258,368). @ScottSKOMO @MorganKIRO7 pic.twitter.com/y2eY92I4f5
— Ch☈is Vagas|☇y (@COweatherman) May 31, 2020
Oregon wasn’t hit quite as hard with 32,925 strikes Saturday — about 11% of its annual average.
But combine the two states together and Vagasky says the 119,639 strikes was about 27% of the region’s annual average in just 0.27% of the year!
Just how anomalous was the weather in #WAwx and #ORwx yesterday? Well…The NLDN detected 119,639 total #lightning events across the two states yesterday. The annual average for Washington + Oregon is 439,635, so 27.2% of the annual lightning occurred in just 0.27% of the year! pic.twitter.com/zUG8e1CAWN
— Ch☈is Vagas|☇y (@COweatherman) May 31, 2020
About the only place spared in Washington was along the coast and Olympic Peninsula. The track of the storm kept most of the activity into and east of Kitsap County.
It will be interesting to see how many wildfires are ignited. More anomalous weather headlines on Strange Sounds and Steve Quayle. [KomoNews, Wildfiretoday]
Seattle will go under water soon. These are sign of quakes are imminent since FEMA and federal troops are already arrived for 9.5 quakes will last 16 minutes indeed. If you can get out of cities and i told you before cities will be center of super storm , Martial law and riots and civil war already started. It is wired Twitter account of ANTIFA was closed and belong to white supremacy.
White supremacists pose as Antifa online, call for violence in post Trump Jr. drew attention to: Twitter
Nation/World
by: CNN Wire
Posted: Jun 2, 2020 / 07:08 AM PDT / Updated: Jun 2, 2020 / 02:24 PM PDT
A Twitter account that tweeted a call to violence and claimed to be representing the position of “Antifa” was in fact created by a known white supremacist group, Twitter said Monday. The company removed the account.
Before it emerged the account was run by white supremacists, Donald Trump Jr., President Donald Trump’s son, pointed his 2.8 million Instagram followers to the account as an example how dangerous Antifa is.
“This account violated our platform manipulation and spam policy, specifically the creation of fake accounts,” a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement. “We took action after the account sent a Tweet inciting violence and broke the Twitter Rules.”
Although the account only had a few hundred followers, it is an example of white supremacists seeking to inflame tensions in the United States by posing as left-wing activists online.
The revelation of the account comes as President Donald Trump increasingly blames left-wing activists for violence occurring at protests across America.
On Sunday, Trump tweeted he would designate Antifa a terrorist organization, despite the US government having no existing legal authority to do so. Antifa, short for anti-fascists, describes a broad, loosely-organized group of people whose political beliefs lean toward the left — often the far-left — but do not conform with the Democratic Party platform.
Antifa positions can be hard to define, but many people espousing those beliefs support oppressed populations and protest the amassing of wealth by corporations and elites. Some employ radical or militant tactics to get out their messages.
The fake account, @ANTIFA_US, tweeted Sunday, “ALERT Tonight’s the night, Comrades Tonight we say “F**k The City” and we move into the residential areas… the white hoods…. and we take what’s ours #BlacklivesMaters #F**kAmerica.”
“Absolutely insane,” Trump Jr. wrote on Instagram, sharing a screenshot of the tweet, “Just remember what ANTIFA really is. A Terrorist Organization! They’re not even pretending anymore.”
A spokesperson for Donald Trump Jr. did not provide comment to CNN Tuesday morning, but later the post was removed from Trump Jr.’s Instagram feed. There is no indication whatsoever that Trump Jr. knew who was behind the account or that it was fake.
Twitter said that the account was in fact linked to Identity Evropa, a white power fraternity.
Though Twitter referred to the group as Identity Evropa when discussing the account’s removal, the Anti Defamation League (ADL) states that the group dissolved and reformed under the name the American Identitarian Movement, which it also calls a white supremacist group.
The group promotes itself as “identitarian,” that white people should preserve their racial and cultural identity. The American Identitarian Movement says it prohibits violence and illegal activity.
CNN has reached out to the group for comment.
Twitter said it had shut down other fake accounts linked to Identity Evropa, too.
The phenomenon of people on the right creating fake Antifa accounts predates the current wave of protests. The takedown Monday is not the first time a fake Antifa account linked to white supremacists has been suspended by Twitter, the spokesperson confirmed.
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Disclaimer always applies
God’s final warning: repent or DIE
There was a lot of Chem-trail spraying for a couple days prior to the storms.
God angry at Bull Gates?
Lived in Washington State for 30 years. Some years we had lot’s of lightening, then we would go years with hardly any. Same with wind. I remember the Columbus Day Storm in the 60’s. It knocked down a lot of old growth timber. Kept the Timber Companies busy for years cleaning it up. You need to check the long range weather cycles. Where I live now, it’s on a 40 year cycle with 11 year smaller cycles in between. The Olympic Mountains rarely have electrical storms. But, there was a very big one in the late 70’s. I know, I was under it at tree line. Scared everyone. It included a flash flood that took out trail bridges and some roads.