From Steve Pierce, President, Oregon Chapter of the American Meteorological Society
Vancouver, Washington (March 13th 2012) – “Many residents along the coastline of Oregon awoke Tuesday morning to no power, downed trees, closed roads and as much as 8″ of snow in a rare one-two punch. This storm will likely go down in the record books as one of the largest coastal snowstorms in the month of March ever recorded at some locations. Records date back to the late 1800’s along the Oregon coast. The last coastal snowstorm of this size in the month of March was in 1951 when between 4″ and 8″ inches of snow fell. What is even more rare about this storm is the fact that within 12 hours bewildered coastal residents went from 50 degrees with hurricane force wind gusts to 32 degrees and 6″ of snow. All of this taking place just a week before the official start of spring.”
“A strong Pacific storm raced ashore Monday morning bringing wind gusts to nearly 90 mph along the Oregon coast line. By sunset Monday, near record setting snows were falling along nearly the entire coastline of Oregon including the the shoreline beaches. Areas that were hit especially hard included Pacific City, Tillamook, Lincoln City, Newport and Florence, Oregon. This area spans about 100 miles. Hwy 101 near Cape Foulweather (just north of Newport, OR) was closed in both directions due to downed trees and stranded cars as snow fell on freshly fallen timber overnight. Here is a look at the snow totals as of Tuesday morning.” Special thanks to the Portland office of the National Weather Service for this information —
OREGON COAST
TILLAMOOK, OR = 8.5″
NEWPORT, OR = 6.0″
FLORENCE, OR = 5.0″
WILLAMETTE VALLEY
LIVINGSTON MTN – CAMAS, WA = 5.5″
HAPPY VALLEY, OR = 5.0″
BORING, OR = 4.0″
CANBY, OR = 2.5″
HAPPY VALLEY, OR = 2.0″
LONGVIEW, WA = 2.0″
CAMAS, WA = 2.0″
WASHOUGAL, WA = 2.0″
MILWAUKIE, OR = 1.2″
WILSONVILLE, OR = 1.1″
SALEM, OR = 1.0″
GRESHAM, OR = 1.0″
CASCADE MOUNTAINS
JUNE LAKE, WA = 21.0″
SPENCER MEADOWS, WA = 19.0″
SHEEP CANYON, WA = 17.0″
SURPRISE LAKES, WA = 15.0″
BENNETT PASS, MT HOOD, OR = 9.0″
MT HOOD MEADOWS, OR = 7.0″
GOVERNMENT CAMP, OR = 7.0″
TIMBERLINE LODGE, OR = 6.0″
MCKENZIE, OR = 6.0″
ROARING RIVER, OR = 6.0″
WILLAMETTE PASS, OR = 6.0″
TOMBSTONE, OR. = 3.0″
###
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
Disclaimer: Permission granted to reuse with courtesy given to author and quoted directly.
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Whether it is Texas wild fires, Dakotas floods, New England snow storms, I always chime in on the fact that it is the worst in 50-60 years. My simplistic forecast model is to look at 60 years ago or so to see what to expect for the present.
“The last coastal snowstorm of this size in the month of March was in 1951 when between 4″ and 8″ inches of snow fell.”
Anthony: Lets have some fun with a post in which commenters make predictions of what extreme weather to expect in given regions by looking back 50 to 60 years (we would have predicted Texas droughts and wildfires, the floods, etc. using a model with better skill than the exalted GCMs. Now that would be a powerful statement from skeptics.
Not quite 20″, but I have about 1″ of snow in my back yard right now! Up in the other Vancouver, in BC. Certainly most unusual for mid-March.
More news from Canada. Not only are natural ice rinks being converted to artificial refrigeration: Pogo has moved north. Yes folks , our favorite warm weather marsupial has left the Okeefenokee and moved to Toronto. Wildlife biologists figure Toronto has now armed up enough for these heat seeking critters to survive.
Next up Albert?
Eat your heart out, west coasters! In Southern Ontario I was out golfing today in a tee shirt and shorts.
Phil C says:
March 13, 2012 at 1:01 pm
“Amazing how there was no post at this website regarding the incredibly warm winter experienced throughout the continental United States this year, but you find time to post this.’
“[REPLY: Quit trying to jinx things. Never heard of the Watts Effect? Only my oil delivery guy is complaining about the warm winter. -REP]”
Amen! Saved big time on the heating bills this winter. Only had to fire up the snow blower 3 times so far. Went for lots of pleasant strolls on ice free sidewalks. If this is the result of AGW, let’s keep pumping out that CO2!
Gary Pearse says: March 13, 2012 at 1:05 pm
————————————————-
OMG!! please say it isn’t so!! 60years ago (just before I was born) here in PDX we broke our all time low temperature, in the month of January there wasn’t a day which didn’t get at least an inch of snow and most of the month there was at least 15" of snow on the ground. My father said that there were parts of the city where they were snowed in for two weeks (the West Hills which always gets more snow.) And 60 years ago this time in the month of March we received half a foot of snow!
If your ‘forecast’ is pans out it’ll be "The Ice Age is coming!!!"
Tell you what, Ian E.
Americans will stop saying things like “awoke Tuesday morning” when Brits stop saying things like “The union agreed the contract.”
Tit for tat, preposition for preposition.
Seriously, both constructions are perfectly fine, because both are perfectly understandable to the people who read them. That’s the only requirement for good grammar. Comprehensible and non-ambiguous.
Unambiguous, that is. 🙂
This is global warming (ehhh…Climate Change) at work here. When the world warms up it will snow more and it gets colder.
That’s why animals in the Eocene Optimum were adapted to polar conditions.
@ur momisugly Ian E says:
March 13, 2012 at 12:09 pm
Have to say that when I read: “He was drink driving” – I am as compelled to wonder – what was he drinking?
😉
Anyway we’re really enjoying a sunny warm day – highly unusual for our area but not unheard of – just east of Ottawa.
Have been seeing the birds migrate in early this year. Large flocks of geese heading west, north west even heard them at night last week. Red wing black birds, Blue Heron, Ducks everywhere and many others.
Earth day will be celebrated by cleaning up the BBQ instead of the overn, since it’s already in use.
Sometimes a snowstorm is just a snowstorm.
Phil C says:
March 13, 2012 at 1:01 pm
Amazing how there was no post at this website regarding the incredibly warm winter experienced throughout the continental United States this year, but you find time to post this.
They were predicting colder than average due to the La Nina but most of Canada was warmer. This led to a rather interesting exchange. Perhaps even the warmists wish it were colder in Canada this winter. From:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/Climate+change+tale+cities/6154948/story.html
Op Ed: Climate change and a tale of two cities
When it comes to the science of global warming, attitudes vary wildly in Vancouver and Calgary
By Mike Robinson, Edmonton Journal
Here is a small part of the article:
“During the opening pleasantries I told the story of Clague’s lecture, and the impending five-metre sea level rise.
Immediately, one of my colleagues took blunt issue. “Those are the same guys who said this would be one of the coldest winters on record!” I countered, “Dr. Clague is a member of the Royal Society, a scientist who has over 500 peer-reviewed research papers to his credit.”
“I’m a scientist, too!” came the rejoinder. “The world’s climate has always been changing ….”
I stopped short. It would be pointless to continue, and I valued my colleague’s friendship. But I was deeply struck by the rapidity of the denial, the lack of any quarter and the certainty of opinion.”
Climate crazed Canadians carp again! Lack of ice on the Great lakes. As any weatherperson knows, the ice melted because global warming stopped in 1998.
Pogo rules!.
I moved from Boston to Iowa City, Iowa a month after the Blizzard of ’78. Iowa was having a fine spring until we had 6 inches of snow on May 5th. ????? The following winter we had a month with 25 days that were -25 deg F or colder at night and not above 0 deg F during the day. We have that to look forward to now.
[REPLY: Quit trying to jinx things. Never heard of the Watts Effect? Only my oil delivery guy is complaining about the warm winter. -REP]
Over here, in the UK use of heating oil in the USA takes some of the blame for the high cost of diesel. Along with tax and a poor exchange rate. Perhaps your oil delivery guy could talk to suppliers here (please)?
@Gail Combs says:12:25 pm
“By two African countries” do you mean one African country and one European country? Or were you just making a point that the US education system can’t teach world geography? 😉
I’m sitting here north of Seattle, puzzled by the Pacific Northwest storm warnings posted here for the past two days– high winds, huge snow, etc.–despite NOAA’s local forecasts which were far milder. Anyway, it never happened. Unremarkable rain, a little gusty wind, and this morning the sun came out. WUWT?
That storm is heading for California next with snow levels forecast to drop down to 2,500 feet over the weekend. Then it’ll head out and probably spawn more tornadoes in the Midwest.
At least it’s going to bring some decent precip to California, we sure need it this year!
Snaining hard outside of Seattle now.
Diogenes says:
March 13, 2012 at 12:43 pm
What did they name this Hurricane?
The term used by the NWS was “Southwest Sucker, as I recall.
I mowed my grass today. For the 3rd time this year 🙁
We had no winter in NC…
I live in the Sandy river valley, Oregon, and work at Timberline Lodge, as the person in charge of snow removal in the parking lots at Timberline. I didn’t work today, but did go snowboarding there. While the telemetry says 6″ of new snow, it was more like ten to twelve inches at 9am this morning. And still snowing heavily at 1pm when I left.
http://www.nwac.us/weatherdata/timberlinebase/now/
Sixty years ago is a great comparison because the PDO is a 60-year cycle. Here in Oregon It’s almost always like it was 60 years, no matter what year it is.
it’s… all thumbs as usual
years ago… just gong me today, the snow has me flustered