Tornado caps off weekend severe, record-breaking weather in western Washington

Weather experts have confirmed a tornado touched down in Pierce County Monday morning near the Boeing plant in Frederickson.
 Photos posted on social media show cars damaged, trees down and the roof partly blown off at Northwest Door, a manufacturing plant. "We're seeing a swath of damage that is about a mile-and-a-half long," said Central Pierce Fire and Rescue Assistant Chief Ed Hrivnak.  Boeing is reporting damage at its production plant, including windows blown off of cars in the parking lot. Some train cars were blown over, according to reports sent to the National Weather Service. "We're still trying to get a handle on how much damage was done," said Boeing's Doug Alder. "We do know some car windows were blown out in the parking lot, trees, power lines are down in the area." No Boeing employees were hurt and operations have returned to normal. One building received slight damage and the company is asking employees to use caution as they arrive for work.  The NWS says the radar showed what appeared as a "garden variety thunderstorm," according to forecaster Johhny Berg. "But we did see a little bit of rotation inside of there." A team from the NWS office in Seattle went to the area "too see exactly what happened and then so we can get a better idea of what damage occurred and what rating to give it (the storm)," said Berg. A clerk at Canyon Road Gas and Deli heard the storm blow through. "All I heard was a big boom, the wind was blowing and it was raining like hell," he said. Central Pierce Fire and Rescue posted an image on Twitter of a commercial building in Frederickson in which portions of the roof were missing. Other images showed debris thrown across the road.Fire personnel and Boeing's Alder report no injuries from the severe weather that hit the area at about 7:20 a.m. The tornado follows a canceled high wind warning late Sunday night into early Monday. The NWS says winds on the coast Sunday hit 67 mph at Destruction Island, 51 mph at Hoquiam and 43 mph at Friday Harbor. The front moved east before dawn and blustery winds were forecast through the day in Eastern Washington.  Several areas in Western Washington found themselves without power. Puget Sound Energy reports occasional windy weather late Sunday evening created some scattered outages for PSE customers, primarily in Skagit, Kitsap and Thurston counties. At 10 a.m. Monday, PSE reported 4,000 scattered outages. Seattle City Light had no outages.  In Orting at 5:30 a.m. a weather system moving through the area disrupted a transmission line and knocked two substations offline and 7,000 additional customers lost power. Due to the power outages, the Orting School District canceled school for the day. Meanwhile, a flood warning is in effect for the Skokomish River near Potlatch in Mason County.