FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Steve Pierce
President, Oregon Chapter of the American Meteorological Society
Vancouver, Washington (March 12th 2012) – “A strong late season storm is making landfall this afternoon along the Oregon and Washington coast. Winds have gusted to as high as nearly 90 mph along the northern Oregon coast and 45-60 mph at some locations in the Willamette Valley today. The airport at Salem, Oregon recorded a preliminary gust of 52 mph late this morning along with a mesowest station in Salem reporting 62 mph. The Portland airport reported a gust to nearly 50 mph as well. Attached to this e-mail is a picture of today’s wind damage in Salem. Please courtesy Salem resident Robert Redfield for this picture, if reused. Today’s strong storm is more reminiscent of something we would see in December rather than March.
After the front passes by the region this afternoon, snow levels will fall dramatically this evening. Overnight tonight into Tuesday, snow could fall as low as the valley floor. Late tonight, an area of organized showers will rotate around the upper level low into western Oregon and Washington. All elevations west of the Cascades could see anywhere from a dusting to as much as 3″ of snow in the higher foothills from Medford, Oregon north to Bellingham, Washington and points east. This is a rare and cold late season storm. Snow at sea level west of the Cascades in the month of March is rare. Overnight low temperatures Monday night are forecast to remain just above freezing at most valley locations west of the Cascades. This will be the third time in the past month where locations such as Portland and Seattle will likely see some snow in their respective metropolitan areas overnight tonight.
Here is a list of preliminary peak wind gusts that are equal to or greater than 50mph across Oregon and Washington as of 2pm PDT. A more comprehensive list (in excel format) is also attached to this e-mail. You can also click on the excel spreadsheet station name column for the geographical location of the selected station, as plotted on a map —
Station Name
Max 24 Hour Gust Ending 2pm PDT (MPH)
Hurricane Ridge 87
Pacific Ci PACCTY-2 87
Naselle Ridge 83
Garibaldi 82
Cape Foulwea NEWPRT 81
Cape Meares MEARES 80
Crystal Mtn-top 79
Lincoln City LINCON 77
Mt. Hebo HEBOWX 76
Cape Disappointment 75
Clatsop Spit 75
Megler 72
Mount Hebo 72
Yaquina Bridge Wind 72
Yaquina Bridge Wind 72
SQUAW PEAK 72
ONTARIO 70
Mary’s Peak 69
Rattlesnake Mountai 67
Mt Howard HOWARD 67
LONG PRAIRIE 65
Port Orford 65
Bellingham CW9778 64
WAGONTIRE 64
Point Wilson 63
Cannon Beach DW4535 63
Gable Mountain 63
Silcott Island 63
Road’s End W7KKE-3 62
Salem CW9266 62
SUGARLOAF 62
Mission Ridge-top 62
Sunnyside 62
Tierra Del M DW2405 61
White Pass-top 61
FLYNN PRAIRIE 61
Ferndale CW3375 60
Newport WA7ZVY-4 60
Oceanside OCNSID 60
GRAYBACK 60
HUCKLEBERRY RIDGE 59
Timberline Lodge – 58
Alpental-Denny Mtn 56
Cherry Point 56
Rockaway Bea ROCKWY 56
Springfield CW9669 56
SUMMER LAKE 56
ANTELOPE 56
Newport Municipal A 55
Tillamook 55
ZIM 55
Shaniko 55
Buoy 46088 54
Freeland DW9051 54
Smith Island 54
Ruggs DW5076 54
COUGAR MOUNTAIN 53
Mount Baker-Panoram 53
Newport DW1265 53
North Bend Municipa 53
Dirty Face Mtn 53
Hanford Franklin Co 53
Pendleton WB7CYS 53
Sandy Pt. Sh CW1394 52
Garibaldi KB7QWZ 52
Salem, McNary Field 52
Anacortes DW6057 51
Lopez Island DW7371 51
Port Townsend 51
Quillayute State Ai 51
Astoria Regional Ai 51
Crown Point DW6193 51
Forest Grove N7NKE 51
South Beach 51
Tillamook Airport 51
BANDON 51
Florence/Siuslaw Je 51
Yachats YACHTS 51
SILVER BUTTE 51
SUMMIT 51
TEPEE DRAW 51
Hanford 200 East Ar 51
Hanford Fast Flux T 51
Lexington Airport A 51
Lexington CW9205 51
Outlook 51
Roosevelt 51
Long Creek CW0704 51
Point No Point 50
Augspurger 50
Gold Beach (US 101 50
Port Orford (US 101 50
PATJENS 50
###
Contact:
Steve Pierce
President, Oregon Chapter of the American Meteorological Society
Oregon AMS web site: http://www.ametsoc.org/chapters/oregon/
E-mail: stevejpierce ‘at” comcast.net
Phone: 503-504-2075
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A couple inches in the Bellingham area – wife wants to move to Texas.
With the PDO looking to be in the negative for the next 20 the move south seems like a good idea, we lost quite a few sunny days this last year. We are running 2-4 degrees below normal. Ick. Not to mention 1.5″ inches above normal rain fall for the year already, with nearly 12″ instead of 10.5″ – Global warming is going to mean moving to a warmer climate for us…
Great skiing last night up Cypress, Vancouver, BC. Mountain was closed until 4PM due to high winds winds and blizzard conditions. Tons of new snow. When it opened there was no one on the hill. Snow drifts everywhere which are very unusual for the local mountains. Winds were still high and still snowing heavily. Every run was fresh tracks – the blowing snow had filled in the last runs tracks. When thing finally shut down at 10PM, for the hardy it had been the best snow of the year. A good day to play hookey today.
Here at an undisclosed location just south of Tacoma and north of Olympia, WA it snowed from about 0730 until around 0845, leaving an 1-1/2″ of the dreaded white stuff (including road surfaces) for us to fret over. The sky now has intermittant blue patches but when the coulds roll back, we have the fluff drifting down. Temperature at 0930 PDT is 33 degrees. Not out of the ordinary, but since we jst went to daylight savings time, really would rather have flip-flop and tank top weather……if the last few springs and summers are an indication of the “new weather paradigm” for the PNW, may just have to go south for some radiance from old Sol….
Woke up here in the Grande Ronde Valley to wind and spots of blue in the clouds,
go have coffee look out to a nice snow and lots of wind.
“nice” is subjective…