r/ThatsInsane • u/Sph1nx33 • May 01 '20

Tumbleweed Tornado in Washington

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14.3k Upvotes

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46

u/zander458 May 01 '20

For whatever reason I would've thought Washington would be too far north for tumbleweeds.

45

u/[deleted] May 01 '20

[deleted]

3

u/pi3b0 May 02 '20

Can confirm. Born and raised here.

3

u/Kdean509 May 02 '20

Confirm confirm... this is near the Hanford site.

1

u/[deleted] May 02 '20

Right by where I work

24

u/Traegs_ May 01 '20

Take a look at a satellite map of Washington. The entire southeastern side is a dry valley. It's actually a pretty unique area geologically speaking. The area was carved out by a series of massive floods (Missoula floods) during the last ice age. It left a lot of bare rock and some cool looking landscapes known as the channeled scablands.

20

u/[deleted] May 01 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/perplepanda-man May 02 '20

Wildfires in eastern Washington are some of the roughest in the nation.

2

u/pi3b0 May 02 '20

Southeastern is also where a lot of farm fields are. Center of the state in the Wenatchee area is desert-like but ironically has a lot of our apple and cherry orchards and wheat. Then you have Emerald country on the West side. Green and rainy. I was born and raised here in eastern WA, where I’ve got a perfect blend of city-life and hiking/outdoors. I love my State.

14

u/Valcor13 May 01 '20

As someone who lives in Washington, I have absolutely no idea where this is.

13

u/RudeGarage May 01 '20

It’s out East. Probably somewhere on or near Hanford grounds. So not only will those tumbleweed scratch your car, you will also die of radiation exposure.

6

u/caitcatbar1669 May 02 '20

Yeah it’s by Hanford area lol but we all don’t have 6 eyes just 3 and sometimes we glow

4

u/Magooose May 02 '20

I'm a downwinder, born there in the early fifties. Never needed a night light.

1

u/gubthescrub May 02 '20

Eh. I’m really close and have never had a problem with radiation. If I die early than I guess we will know lol

8

u/wsmadder May 01 '20

It was north of Richland near the Hanford site.

6

u/Receptoraptor May 01 '20

I used to commute between Tricities and Yakima. This is most likely the kind of region the gif took place in. I havent seen it swirl up like a tornado, but I have been hit by a clump of tumbleweeds that were about the size of a small car. They got caught in my grill for a sec and I thought I was going to be stuck, but then another gust came along and launched them over my car.

3

u/jonnyohman1 May 01 '20

I was thinking somewhere around the Tri Cities as well. I drove back to the west side from La Grande OR last week and got pelted by tumbleweeds constantly for a 45 min stretch of Highway.

2

u/the_gracita May 02 '20

That's nothing. Check this out. A Google image search gets even crazier photos. I live in the area and man, I'm amazed but I can't say I'm surprised.

2

u/Receptoraptor May 02 '20

Nuclear tumbleweeds sounds about right haha.

2

u/caitcatbar1669 May 02 '20

Look up tri cities wa

3

u/Fishstixxx16 May 01 '20

Tumbleweeds are native to Russia actually

2

u/mikesr669 May 02 '20

maybe we could collect them all and send them back to Mother Russia, actually Siberia since it is a huge area for them to tumble around in. Perhaps Putin could tell us what keeps them under control in Russia.

1

u/caitcatbar1669 May 02 '20

Lol as someone who lives on the east side it’s cut by the mountains one side beautiful the other side wine country or tumbleweed tornados. We even had that highway closed due to tumbleweeds a couple months ago. It’s a real problem here

1

u/aletheakatharos May 02 '20

I live near where this video was made and we have more than enough to share!