Ice Storm — Central Willamette Valley, Oregon

2021-02-11 to 2021-02-13 · Central Willamette Valley, Oregon

Event narrative

This was mostly an ice event for the Central Willamette Valley as a major ice storm occurred from freezing rain. By the end of the event, there were many reports of over 1 inch of ice accumulation, with as much as 1.75 inch reported in Sheridan. This was a crippling ice storm for the Salem metro area where generally amounts of 0.5 to 1.25 inches of ice were reported, and many were without power for days. Key impacts: widespread tree damage and power outages, including 110,000 customers without power in Salem. Multiple road closures as well including Highway 99.

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 946431. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.