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 Pierce� ...

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

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 ...

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