Winter Storm — Central Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

2021-02-11 to 2021-02-15 · Central Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

Event narrative

Hood River area observed 10-16 inches of snow. A trained spotter near Hood River reported 14 inches of snow. I-84 was closed for a time.

Wider weather episode

This was a major, widespread, multi-faceted winter storm that caused major problems across the northern 2/3 of our forecast area, even (and especially) in the lowlands. Impacts were felt as far south as Albany. WFO Portland measured 10.1 of snow, followed by roughly 0.75 of ice. Significant impacts to infrastructure occurred, with over 400,000 people losing power at some point during the storm. The area impacted the hardest appears to be the southern portions of the Portland metro, south through Oregon City and Silverton and as far south as Salem and Aumsville. Polk County was hit hard by ice as well, with 1.00 to 1.75 of ice reported. Some people in these areas hard-hit by ice lost power for over a week.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 946320. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.