Ice Storm — Southern Willamette Valley, Oregon

2024-01-13 · Southern Willamette Valley, Oregon

Event narrative

A mix of snow and sleet, along with ice accumulations of up to one inch led to power outages, transportation disruptions across the Eugene, Springfield, Cottage Grove and Corvallis areas. Interstate 5 was closed at MP 209 (Linn County) due to truck crashes. Power outages continued through at least January 22nd where 92 percent of EWEB customers that lost power were restored at that time. Damage costs were from Lane, Linn and Benton counties whose borders do not exactly align with NWS zones.

Wider weather episode

A very strong arctic front moved across Western Washington and Oregon on the 12th and 13th dropping temperatures below freezing. With cold air in the lowlands, all precipitation fell as freezing rain for areas along the coast, valleys in the Coast Range, and Willamette Valley northward into southwest Washington. This caused significant impacts, especially around Springfield which received well over an inch of ice accumulation. Strong east winds in the Portland metro area resulted in significant tree damage and power outages. There were injuries and fatalities during this event due to cold exposure, falling trees and electrocution from fallen power lines. The State of Oregon estimated economic loss to businesses of $165 million due to winter weather for the month of January. While this was for the entire state, most of the impacts were in northwest Oregon.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1162470. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.