STORM: That was a tornado

I read your front page article concerning some houses in the  Hayden Lake area that were damaged by the abrupt windstorm last week.  I can say that here in Dalton Gardens, I was out after 8:30 p.m., I was putting up some rebuilt metal shelves to store as extra shelf space in my new green house.  I noticed that clouds coming out of the west were particularly fast moving.  It had been real calm as to the wind until those clouds came very swiftly overhead.  Then in a matter of minutes, especially when I went to feed the dogs, the wind had become particularly strong and had a whirling sound in it.  A very fast whirling sound.  I also saw a low hanging giant wedged-shaped cloud over the hills.  It was, by that time to the southeast.  But it wouldn't surprise me that it had come over the Hayden Lake area.  Tornadoes are known to move pretty erratically.  And this definitely looked like and further sounded like a tornado.  The wind was loud enough that even my mother heard it and thought it was "cars traveling in front of the house"  or rain.  And had soon come out to see what was going on.

 There was no damage in the Dalton Gardens area to the best of my knowledge.  But, I wondered, especially after that tornado touch down in the Moses Lake area if this was the same storm that had then come up out of Washington state.  You might contact the National Weather Service and tell them that a funnel cloud was spotted over the hills and the way the wind sounded, characteristic of a tornado.  You really can not forget a sound like that when you hear it.  It is quite unlike any other sound of the wind.

 So, from the article and what I observed on Wednesday night in the same timeframe that LeClaire had reported, that was a tornado. There is no doubt in my mind.

 JOAN E. HARMAN

Dalton Gardens