Heavy, Isolated Thursday Snow Storm Result of Special Conditions

The storm that hit the Wenatchee area Thursday morning left a record amount of snow for the date of April 14.

The National Weather Service says the type of storm that dumped large flakes of snow in such a short period of time starts with the cold and unstable low-pressure system that was present near the Wenatchee area Thursday morning.

Meteorologist Steve Bognar says the conditions for the type of intense, isolated storm tend to be present this time of year.

"It's not uncommon to get these cool upper level systems," said Bognar. "And then what tends to happen is we get these little circulations, and then it focuses very localized bands of snow, When they get stuck in one spot, that's kind of the result that hit Wenatchee."

Bodnar also says it's also not surprising that the storm was targeted in the Wenatchee area, which sits at one of the lowest elevation levels in the North Central Washington region.

"These types of systems, they don't discriminate on elevation like some of our more common winter systems," Bognar said. "That snow is coming down in a hurry, almost like a downpour, close to like what we see in thunder storms, but we're dealing with snow instead."

The National Weather service received reports of 7-10 inches of snow in spots around Wenatchee, with the biggest total of 16 inches coming from a spot in Malaga.