Past Weather Events

Table of Contents

» Feb. 6th, 2008 - Record Lowland Snowfall
» Jan. 10th, 2008 - Vancouver Tornado
» Dec. 1st-3rd, 2007 - The Great Coastal Gale
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Feb. 6th, 2008 - Record Lowland Snowfall

Winter 2008 will be remembered for its record snowfall in the low elevations.

The La Nina labeled winter dumped massive amounts of snowfall in low elevations above 1000 feet. Cities like Detroit and Idanha received over 150 inches of snow during the winter creating major problems. The Oregon National Guard was called into help dig out areas where piles snow covered fire hydrants and rooftops.

Saddle Mountain, part of the Northern Coast Range, recorded the most snow pack since automatic sensors were installed in 1979. In February 2008, there was between 3-5 feet of snow which melted is equivalent to approximately 25 inches of rainfall. This was twice as much as the days before the 1996 floods.

Detroit Ranger Station - Hwy 22 - Feb. 2008

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Detroit Oregon Winter 2008

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Jan. 10th, 2008 - Vancouver Tornado

This was a very amazing tornado that hit the heart of Vancouver Washington in the middle of winter. On January 10th, around 12:30 pm the EF1 Tornado touched down on the East side of Vancouver Lake and then traveled East and slightly Northeast through neighborhoods and over Interstate 5 damaging homes and shredding trees eventually ending in Hazel Dale. Many trees, power poles and fences were blown down.

Notable items from the tornado: the total destruction of two portable buildings for the crew club at Vancouver lake; a stout metal billboard was bent in half; a portable potty overturned with a worker inside; a fish found in a nearby yard (apparently from the lake); a large tractor trailer blown on its side; numerous flying debris damage

My observations: I heard the tornado warning over the radio as I went to lunch in Hillsboro. I looked towards Vancouver where I could see very dark clouds that are normally associated with a thunderstorm. Temperatures were in the upper 40's with 52 as the maximum here in Aloha and rain showers sun breaks in between.

I have attached a copy of Tornadoes in the Pacific Nortwest, a required reading for my meteorology class back in college. Although it was hand-typed and the pictures are hand-drawn, most of the information remains true.

Below are pictures of the tornado and the resulting damage. The map was created by Steve Pierce and Wolf Read in conjunction with the National Weather Service Office in Portland. The pictures are labeled with the person who took the picture. Steve Pierce or KGW provided any pictures not labeled.

Vancouver Tornado Track

Vancouver Tornado Track and Damage Details

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Vancouver Tornado Pictures

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Dec. 1st-3rd, 2007 - The Great Coastal Gale

This was an incredible storm or should I say STORMS. Two storms brought extreme high winds and flood damage to the Northern Oregon and Southwest Washington coast as well as inland locations, like Vernonia, Oregon and Chehalis, Washington

Notable items from the storms: Major BPA lines were blown down and power was out for a week from Cannon Beach to Astoria; Interstate 5 was closed at Chehalis for about four days until officials tore down the nearby levy to allow the water to spill in the open fields; roads through the Northern coast range were closed for a day or more; Vernonia experienced severe flooding, worse than the 1996 floods.

My observations: My family and I were actually visiting the coast that weekend in Cannon Beach. We headed down on the Friday before and were aware of the impending storms. I brought my laptop and was able to monitor the storm with the free Internet provided by the RV Park. The visit was fairly normal for most of the weekend, until Sunday morning when I awoke to heavy rain and high wind gusts. These gusts were more than I have ever experienced at the coast. They would shake my 33-foot 5th wheel trailer back and forth.

A group of friends that we were camping with decided to head back home around 9:30 that morning. I decided to stay a bit and set up the Satellite dish for the NFL game that morning. This proved to be somewhat problematic. While I positioned the dish, I began to wonder if I should have headed home too. I could hear large trees break and fall in the distance and the increased wind gusts began to break small tree branches in front of me. I continued to find the satellite signal, all the time fighting the strong wind gusts. Several times after I positioned the dish, a strong wind gust (I would estimate between 40-60 mph) would flip the dish over, even with rocks I found used as ballast. Then the power went out in town, it was now about 12:30 and I decided to go on generator power to finish the game. Shortly after the game was completed, the dish flipped over for that last time. It was time to go.

At about 2:00 PM, I hooked up the trailer and began the journey home. The winds buffeted the trailer back and forth on the drive North up Highway 101 to the US Hwy 26 junction. The winds were not that bad, maybe because the first storm had made landfall and the winds were from the South, directly behind me. Next, I traveled up US 26 through the coast range where I noticed some areas where trees had fallen across the road, but were already cleared. I saw some ODOT crews near Quartz Creek, as if they were waiting for more work to follow. The rest of the journey was relatively normal and was able to arrive at home around 3:30 where it now had begun to rain.

The rain became steady all night and through the next day. When I awoke Monday morning for work, I realized that I just made it back from the beach, because I heard from the radio reports that all roads were closed to the North coast due to trees and landslides. It was almost two days before US 26 was back open.

On Monday, December 4, 2007, I recorded 3.10 inches of rainfall and a high gust of 45 mph. (measured from midnight to midnight.)

Below are pictures of the storm damage I found on Wolf Read's website.