Winter Storm — Coast Range of Nw Oregon, Oregon

2021-02-11 to 2021-02-13 · Coast Range of Nw Oregon, Oregon

Event narrative

Impacts ranged from mostly snow in the northern portion of the zone to mostly ice further south near Grand Ronde, Willamina, and the Van Duzer Corridor. North of Highway 6, general 6 to 12 inch snow totals occurred. South of Highway 6, precipitation was mostly in the form of freezing rain, yielding up to an inch of ice near Grand Ronde and Highway 18. Many trees and power lines were downed by the combination of snow and ice, and many roads were closed during the event.

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 946341. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.