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Historic PNW Winter Weather News Chronology


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Just thought I'd share some nice goodies after perusing through the old Oregonian microfilm (1862-1987) which the Multnomah County Library system generously offers for free online to its members. I have uploaded some of the more significant front pages in PDF format so non-members can view them. Lots of interesting reading if one has some spare time.

 

January 13, 1916: Near blizzard hits Portland, very frigid temps

 

01131916.pdf

 

February 3, 1916: Historic snow in Seattle and ice/snow in Portland

 

02031916.pdf

 

December 13, 1919: Massive arctic outbreak following a 20-30" snowstorm around Portland (unfortunately the interesting articles from this episode are cropped off on the left side of the microfilm)

 

12131919.pdf

 

November 21, 1921: Historic winter storm with flooding and ice around Portland, snow around Seattle, and 35" of snow in 24 hours at The Dalles

 

11211921.pdf

 

February 14, 1923: Historic snowstorm and late winter cold spell (those temps are ridiculous!)

 

02141923.pdf

 

January 29, 1929: Big snowstorm and arctic blast, unfortunately though article is stupidly cropped again

 

01291929.pdf

 

January 18, 1930: Cold spell begins to freeze rivers, includes a fun little early forecast bust as a relieving warm-up turned into....

 

01181930.pdf

 

January 20, 1930: Another blizzard

 

01201930.pdf

 

December 12, 1932: Snow in San Francisco, arctic blast continues in NW

 

121121932.pdf

 

February 9, 1933: Cold cold cold

 

02091933.pdf

 

January 21, 1935: Another extreme cold snap

 

01211935.pdf

 

October 30, 1935: A freak early snow in the area

 

10301935.pdf

 

February 8, 1936: A freak arctic front setting the stage for a freak month of February

 

02081936.pdf

 

April 2, 1936: A freak late snow. 1935-36 was just a freakshow all around.

 

04021936.pdf

 

February 2, 1937: Blizzard cripples Portland region

 

02021937.pdf

 

December 28, 1937: Historic regional rainstorm, with a wet snow cameo

 

12281937.pdf

 

January 22, 1943: Another totally crippling snowstorm, that world war thing still a little more important....

 

01221943.pdf

 

January 14, 1950: Wild Friday the 13th storm

 

01141950.pdf

 

January  20, 1950: The ice storm to end all ice storms

 

01201950.pdf

 

January 31, 1950: A chilly day to cap off a chilly month

 

01319150.pdf

 

 

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Another string of them

 

March 9, 1951: Serious wet snow dump in historic regional weather pattern

 

03091951.pdf

 

January 7, 1952: 7" of snow on the ground in Portland? Looks pretty, now have fun at school today kids.

 

01071952.pdf

 

January 17, 1954: Another big regional snowstorm, a little lost in the shuffle

 

01171954.pdf

 

November 17, 1955: Historic fall cold and incoming snowstorm

 

11171955.pdf

 

January 28, 1956: Big Portland snowstorm going into a nice cold spell

 

01281956.pdf

 

January 20, 1960: Nice snowstorm, complete with a reminder that even then winters used to be a lot better

 

01201960.pdf

 

March 4, 1960: More March shenangians, snow literally everywhere

 

03041960.pdf

 

October 13, 1962: Not quite winter, but rather historic nonetheless

 

10131962.pdf

 

December 19,1964: Overrunning blizzard, cold....

 

12191964.pdf

 

December 23, 1964: Followed by the sometimes icky consequences of a little snow fun

 

12231964.pdf

 

December 31, 1968: Polar vortex drops in to say hello

 

12311968.pdf

 

January 27, 1969: More snow, Eugene gets annihilated

 

01271969.pdf

 

April 6, 1972: Not winter, but again, pretty historic

 

04061972.pdf

 

December 6, 1972: Mini-blizzard ushers in epic cold wave

 

12061972.pdf

 

November 23, 1977: Historic November snowfall in Portland

 

11231977.pdf

 

November 20, 1978: More November snow, along with a Jonestown cameo (!)

 

11201978.pdf

 

January 11, 1979: Crippling ice storm hits Portland region

 

0111979.pdf

 

January 10, 1980: Epic multi-day snowstorm for some, ice storm for others

 

01101980.pdf

 

June 13, 1980: Again, not quite a winter storm, but an ash storm..

 

06131980.pdf

 

December 25, 1983: Epic east windstorm during cold-air-outbreak of the century

 

12251983.pdf

 

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Nice!

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Snowfall                                  Precip

2022-23: 95.0"                      2022-23: 17.39"

2021-22: 52.6"                    2021-22: 91.46" 

2020-21: 12.0"                    2020-21: 71.59"

2019-20: 23.5"                   2019-20: 58.54"

2018-19: 63.5"                   2018-19: 66.33"

2017-18: 30.3"                   2017-18: 59.83"

2016-17: 49.2"                   2016-17: 97.58"

2015-16: 11.75"                 2015-16: 68.67"

2014-15: 3.5"
2013-14: 11.75"                  2013-14: 62.30
2012-13: 16.75"                 2012-13: 78.45  

2011-12: 98.5"                   2011-12: 92.67"

It's always sunny at Winters Hill! 
Fighting the good fight against weather evil.

 

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Great work! I’ll have to go through all of those when I have time.

 

I remember forcing my dad to drive me to Multnomah Library so I could look at old microfilms of the Oregonian. I was about 13-14 years old at the time. Naturally, I went straight to 1950!

 

Thanks!

 

If there's any other dates anyone was wondering about or would like to see, then let me know. Looks like I haven't used up all my upload space just yet.

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Morning Side College has it here. http://infoweb.newsbank.com/?db=EANX-CEnot sure if it works directly from the link if not then go to https://morningside.libguides.com/az.php it doesn't require a password on either Chrome nor Firefox.   I just click it and it goes to Newsbank selections and choose (America's Historical Papers up to 2000) and if you type a date in you can see the list of papers available for that date if you just want to jump to that paper.  

 

Sometimes the dates are off like it shows Bellingham Herald only up to 1941 on the list BUT if you search for weather articles during the Jan 1950 period for example it will show things from then.   

 

It also has the Seattle Times and Idaho Statesmen for Boise.  

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February 3, 1916 snow 2 feet deep in downtown Seattle district. Can you imagine what that would be like now? Pure madness. 

 

Seattle actually topped out at 29 inches.  They also had a max depth of 29 in 1893.

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Death To Warm Anomalies!

 

Winter 2023-24 stats

 

Total Snowfall = 1.0"

Day with 1" or more snow depth = 1

Total Hail = 0.0

Total Ice = 0.2

Coldest Low = 13

Lows 32 or below = 45

Highs 32 or below = 3

Lows 20 or below = 3

Highs 40 or below = 9

 

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Thanks!

 

If there's any other dates anyone was wondering about or would like to see, then let me know. Looks like I haven't used up all my upload space just yet.

 

Great post!

 

I think the January 1972 snowstorm in Seattle was worth mentioning.  Good combination of cold and heavy snow.  I think it was on the 26th.

Death To Warm Anomalies!

 

Winter 2023-24 stats

 

Total Snowfall = 1.0"

Day with 1" or more snow depth = 1

Total Hail = 0.0

Total Ice = 0.2

Coldest Low = 13

Lows 32 or below = 45

Highs 32 or below = 3

Lows 20 or below = 3

Highs 40 or below = 9

 

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Great stuff... I love reading old newspapers.   The other things in the news are almost as interesting as the snow and cold stories.

 

The ones from the 1800s are really fun.  The medical tonics and other quackery were hysterical.

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Death To Warm Anomalies!

 

Winter 2023-24 stats

 

Total Snowfall = 1.0"

Day with 1" or more snow depth = 1

Total Hail = 0.0

Total Ice = 0.2

Coldest Low = 13

Lows 32 or below = 45

Highs 32 or below = 3

Lows 20 or below = 3

Highs 40 or below = 9

 

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February 3, 1916 snow 2 feet deep in downtown Seattle district. Can you imagine what that would be like now? Pure madness.

Nothing quite like cross country skiing down a major interstate during blizzard conditions, lol. A bunch of people did it here during the blizzard back in 2016.

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February 3, 1916 snow 2 feet deep in downtown Seattle district. Can you imagine what that would be like now? Pure madness.

I wish Shawnigan Lake had snow depth records back that far. Between Jan 1 and Feb 9th, they recorded 135” of snow and only 1 day with a high temp above 35F. Also, only on 1 occasion did the snow turn to rain.
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Nothing quite like cross country skiing down a major interstate during blizzard conditions, lol. A bunch of people did it here during the blizzard back in 2016.

I rode my snowmobile down Washington State highway 25 last December. 10" fell overnight on the 26th at my house. I rode the ol' 92' Yamaha exciter to the local gas station that is 10 mies down the road. Nothing like doing 75mph down a rural state highway on fresh unplowed snow  :lol:

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I think Dec 1996 had about 18" in downtown Seattle.

I have news coverage from that event on VHS! Pretty awesome stuff! I had nearly 2 feet fall in just a 12hr timespan. it was epic!

Elevation 580’ Location a few miles east of I-5 on the Snohomish Co side of the Snohomish/Skagit border. I love snow/cold AND sun/warmth! 

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The ones from the 1800s are really fun.  The medical tonics and other quackery were hysterical.

 

It's amazing the kind of crap that used to be advertised. Even the state climate summaries from the Weather Bureau used to have advertisements in them. Totally random stuff too, like "Bill's horse feed" or whatever. Different times. 

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