The January 2012 Pacific Northwest snowstorm was a large
extratropical cyclone that brought record snowfall to the
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Tho ...
in January 2012.
The storm produced very large snowfall totals, reaching up to in
Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...
.
A wind gust was reported at
Otter Rock, Oregon.
A mother and child were killed in Oregon after the car they were in slid into a creek,
while a man was killed in the Seattle area.
About 200,000 homes were without power in the
Greater Seattle
The Seattle metropolitan area is an urban conglomeration in the U.S. state of Washington that comprises Seattle, its surrounding satellites and suburbs. It contains the three most populous counties in the state—King, Snohomish, and Pierceâ ...
area after the storm.
Meteorological synopsis
The storm was first noted just off the coast of
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
on January 16, with a central pressure of . The center of the low pressure area had then moved south to about off the
Oregon Coast
The Oregon Coast is a coastal region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to its west and the Oregon Coast Range to the east, and stretches approximately from the California state border in the south to the Columbia ...
. At the same time, the storm had attained peak intensity of .
The storm then began to move closer to the coastline, and by 2000
UTC on January 18, the storm was located about off the coast of
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
.
By 0200 UTC the next day, of snow had already fallen in
Stanley, Idaho
Stanley is a town in the Sawtooth Valley in Custer County, Idaho, United States. The population was 116 at the 2020 census; up from 63 in 2010. The center of population of Idaho in 2000 was located in Stanley.
History
Fur trappers of the H ...
.
Impact
United States
The
National Weather Service
The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the ...
(NWS) began issuing severe weather warnings for the whole of the Pacific Northwest on January 17 and 18. A hurricane-force wind warning was issued for offshore Oregon at about 1600 UTC on January 18. A storm warning was also issued for parts of California and Oregon. Numerous flights were cancelled due to heavy snow and rain. The NWS office in
Missoula, Montana
Missoula ( ; fla, label= Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County. It is located along the Clark Fork ...
, said that this storm ranked in the top seven of the top snowfall events in the area.
Interstate 5
Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californi ...
near
Centralia, Washington
Centralia () is a city in Lewis County, Washington, United States. It is located along Interstate 5 near the midpoint between Seattle and Portland, Oregon. The city had a population of 18,183 at the 2020 census. Centralia is twinned with Ch ...
, was closed temporarily due to powerlines brought down by snowfall; the standard detour route was also blocked by trees and powerlines.
Amtrak service between Portland and Seattle was canceled due to trees and debris left on tracks.
More than 12 Oregon highways were closed due to storm damage, and many more were partly closed.
Oregon Route 213
Oregon Route 213 (OR 213) is an Oregon state highway that serves the eastern Willamette Valley between Portland and Salem. It is a north–south route. The route (except for its southernmost segment) is known as the Cascade Highway, thou ...
near
Molalla closed for several days due to an undermined roadbed beside a culvert.
Non-winter weather events
Rainfall
A
Pineapple Express
Pineapple Express is a non-technical term for a meteorological phenomenon characterized by a strong and persistent large-scale flow of warm moist air, and the associated heavy precipitation both in the waters immediately northeast of the Hawaii ...
event brought heavy precipitation to Western Oregon,
generally more so than to western Washington, with most precipitation in the form of rain instead of snow. Eugene broke its precipitation record for January 18, and Salem came within of breaking its record for January 19.
The weather was attributed to
La Niña
La Niña (; ) is an oceanic and atmospheric phenomenon that is the colder counterpart of as part of the broader El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate pattern. The name ''La Niña'' originates from Spanish for "the girl", by an ...
.
[
]
See also
*2006 Central Pacific cyclone
The 2006 Central Pacific cyclone, also known as Invest 91C or Storm 91C, was an unusual weather system that formed in 2006. Forming on October 30 from a mid-latitude cyclone in the north Pacific mid-latitudes, it moved over waters warmer than nor ...
*Great Gale of 1880
The Great Gale of 1880 was an intense extratropical cyclone (possibly deeper than 955 millibars (mb) or 28.20") that impacted the Northwest United States on January 9, 1880. Gusts of an estimated 138 miles per hour hit the northwest coast. Bu ...
*Columbus Day Storm of 1962
The Columbus Day Storm of 1962 (also known as the Big Blow, and originally, and in Canada as Typhoon Freda) was a Pacific Northwest windstorm that struck the West Coast of Canada and the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States on October 12, ...
* South Valley Surprise of 2002
* Hanukkah Eve windstorm of 2006
*Great Coastal Gale of 2007
The Great Coastal Storm of 2007 was a series of three powerful Pacific storms that affected the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia between December 1, 2007 and December 4, 2007.
The storms on Dece ...
References
External links
*
{{United States winter storms
2012 in Oregon
2012 in Washington (state)
2012 meteorology
2012 natural disasters in the United States
Natural disasters in Oregon
Natural disasters in Washington (state)
Pacific Northwest storms
January 2012 events in North America
2011–12 North American winter