Winter Storm — Greater Vancouver Area, Washington

2021-02-11 to 2021-02-13 · Greater Vancouver Area, Washington

Event narrative

A winter storm brought several rounds of heavy snow and some freezing rain to the greater Vancouver area beginning the night of the 11th continuing through the 14th. This was mostly a snow event for Clark County, with snowfall amounts ranging from around 6-10 inches downtown and East Vancouver, to up to 16 inches in northern portions of the zone. Ice accumulations up to 0.5 inch was also reported in south Vancouver. Widespread transportation delays and accidents occurred, including along I-5 and I-205. Scattered power outages were also reported. Key Impacts: transportation delays, traffic accidents, scattered power outages.

Wider weather episode

A deep upper trough drove an arctic airmass into southwest Washington. As multiple Pacific fronts moved over the area, a major elevation winter storm with heavy snow and freezing rain occurred over a multi-day period. This was a major, widespread, multi-faceted winter storm that caused major problems across the forecast area, even (and especially) in the lowlands.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 946574. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.