High Wind — Greater Portland Metro Area, Oregon

2014-12-11 · Greater Portland Metro Area, Oregon

Event narrative

Gusty strong winds resulted in several downed trees for the Portland Metro Area. There were widespread road closures and power outages due to the downed trees. One fatality and one injury resulted from a tree falling onto a moving car. The Portland International Airport experienced re routing and delays of aircraft, and the Portland Mass Transit, MAX system had system-wide delays due to power outages. In downtown Portland, loose material from a roof of a nearby building were lofted and blown against windows of the Standard Insurance Plaza damaging several windows on the fifteenth floor. A Parapet of a Portland apartment in NW Portland fell and caused major damage to the apartment building. At least one power pole was downed by the winds in Washington County. A large tree fell onto a moving car injuring a mother and killing her son.

Wider weather episode

A 974 millibar surface low moved northward paralleling the coast around 80 miles offshore, and resulted in one of the strongest wind storms that Northwest Oregon had experienced in past several of years. The strongest winds occurred as high pressure filled in behind the low. In this event, the Willamette Valley was just as susceptible to the strong winds as the coast and coast range were. Most of the injuries, property damage, and power outages occurred in the Willamette Valley, but broken and toppled trees were widespread from the coast to the base of the Cascade foothills.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 553043. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.