High Wind — Northern Clearwater Mountains, Idaho

2025-12-17 · Northern Clearwater Mountains, Idaho

Event narrative

The Dent RAWS, located at 1,700 feet, reported wind gusts up to 55 mph between 0508PST and 0608PST, and 57 mph between 0608PST and 0708PST. Fallen trees completely blocked roads and access points throughout the county. Widespread tree damage was noted across central and eastern Clearwater County, including North Fork Road, which was completely blocked by fallen timber between Quartz Creek and Washington Creek.

The storm caused severe, localized utility impacts. At 0710PST on December 17, 2,613 out of 5,960 tracked customers (nearly 44 percent) were without power in Clearwater County. Across Clearwater Power's broader network, power was eventually restored to over 10,750 members, but at least 250 members remained without power through the Christmas holiday.

Wider weather episode

On December 17, 2025, a historic high wind event driven by a strong cold front undercutting an atmospheric river brought hurricane-force winds to North Central Idaho. Saturated, extremely wet soils severely weakened root structures, which substantially exacerbated the toppling of countless trees and power poles. The region experienced devastating wind gusts exceeding 70 mph.

The storm caused catastrophic damage to utility infrastructure, resulting in what Clearwater Power described as the most widespread outage and system damage the cooperative has ever experienced. The intense winds and falling timber damaged equipment, substations, and every single main distribution line across their expansive 5,000-square-mile electric system all at once. Fallen trees completely blocked roads and access points, while additional snow and wind following the initial event severely hampered repair progress. Outages persisted for over a week for some residents, with crews and mutual aid partners quadrupling the normal workforce to work through the Christmas holiday to fully restore power across the rugged landscape.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1307243. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.