February 2014

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Someone brought up the February 2014 event today in context of a gorge based event. It was a great event in the gorge, however even moreso it was a great overall event for essentially all of NW Oregon. Even to the coast. Here are some of the highlights from this underappreciated event. 

 

Cooler air started filtering in from the north on the 4th, and there were some lingering snow showers that day. At my home near Silver Falls I had a couple inches of snow by the end of the day. The 5th would be a sunny cold day, and then snow developed on the 6th. A very heavy band of snow developed over the Central Willamette Valley on a Corvallis to Lebanon line, though snow fell elsewhere across the region. More snow would fall the next day on the 7th and into the 8th. By the end of the day on the 9th most places were beginning to thaw.  Below are a highlight of snowfall totals and then some temperatures, as there were some very impressively low maximums.

 

Snowfall

 

Coast

Nehelem 10.0"

Yachats    3.5"

Newport   1.0"

 

Willamette Valley

Willamina 10.6"

Corvallis    14.0"

Cottage Grove 1.4"

Eugene       8.7"

Forest Grove 11.2"

Lebanon      16.5"

PDX- Downtown 8.0"

PDX - NWS  7.3"

 

Foothills

Silver Falls - 11.6"

Lyons -          11.0"

Estacada    - 5"

 

Gorge

Bonneville Dam - 16.7"

The Dalles         - 14.5"

 

 

Temperatures February 4-9

Astoria

42/27

35/24

29/20

34/20

35/31

42/33

 

PDX

37/25

29/21

23/19

28/20

31/25

33/27

 

SLE

38/31

36/22

27/21

28/20

32/27

35/31

 

Corvallis

37/24

35/19

23/16

29/22

33/28

36/32

 

EUG

43/31

36/24

25/20

29/20

32/29

35/32

 

Bonneville Dam

32/22

26/20

20/16

23/14

25/22

29/25

 

Some other highlights from the 6th

 

22/17 at PDX -KGW, Troutdale

High of 23 also at Lebanon, Lacomb, Stayton, Dallas, and Forest Grove.

 

25/18 at Silverton on the 6th

Laurel Mountain 20/5

 

Looks like the 16 at Corvallis was the coldest valley floor low during the event, though gorge locations, and some places with elevation were a bit colder. 

 

 

 

[wx_statman]

That was a great event. Even outside of the impressive snowfall, the temps alone were memorable. 

 

The highs of 23 at PDX and 25 at EUG were both records for so late in the season. 

 

The spillover of Arctic air west of the divide in Montana was notable as well. Wisdom hit -48, it's lowest reading since -49 on 2/24/2003. Seeley Lake Ranger Station saw its lowest temperature (-41) since December 1990 (-44). Libby 32SSE hit -40, a February record low (breaking -39 from 1996) and one of only four occurrences of -40 cold on record at that location (records since 1949). Only colder readings were -44 in January 1950, -43 in December 1990, and -42 in January 2004. 

 

The -23 in Missoula on the 6th was their coldest reading so late in the winter since February 1936. 

[TigerWoodsLibido]

The crazy thing was 4 days before the event, all of the models indicated it would be dry cold, then that low bombed and huge deformation bands set up in the sweet spot.

[DareDuck]

As time passes I remember this event more fondly. I just remember at the time thinking it wasn’t quite as good as 8 weeks earlier. Of course I was in Eugene and had the -10 record low. Definitely got lucky in terms of snow in my 5 years there.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

What amazes me about that whole winter is how it had two pretty incredible in what was otherwise an incredibly dull winter. Basically 2 out of 12 weeks we scored and the other 10 weeks we either sat under a death ridge or torched. If there had been a few other minor events and near misses we would probably remember this winter as an all-time great, also if the December event had provided more snow north of Albany. 

 

The February event also had a very sharp temperature gradient south of Eugene. Cottage Grove saw a small amount of snow and then freezing rain, but basically south of there saw nothing and by the end of the event there were temps in the 60s in southern oregon I believe. 

[wx_statman]

I have really good memories of 2013-14. One of my favorite winters here. Lots of dry weather, minimal gloom, and two outstanding events. 

[BLI snowman]

What amazes me about that whole winter is how it had two pretty incredible in what was otherwise an incredibly dull winter. Basically 2 out of 12 weeks we scored and the other 10 weeks we either sat under a death ridge or torched. If there had been a few other minor events and near misses we would probably remember this winter as an all-time great, also if the December event had provided more snow north of Albany.

 

The February event also had a very sharp temperature gradient south of Eugene. Cottage Grove saw a small amount of snow and then freezing rain, but basically south of there saw nothing and by the end of the event there were temps in the 60s in southern oregon I believe.

Late February and early March was interesting as well, and there was the clipper around 12/20 that delivered some snow north of Seattle.

[BLI snowman]

I have really good memories of 2013-14. One of my favorite winters here. Lots of dry weather, minimal gloom, and two outstanding events.

Can't forget that the transition into fall was great as well. Record stormy September and then a cool, dry October/November. Really unique progression that year. Even missing out on snow with the big Arctic outbreaks in Bellingham, I enjoyed that year a lot.

[Front Ranger]

I think 2013-14 and 2016-17 both have to go down as a top 5 winters for the Willamette Valley since 1970. When looking at a combination of snow/cold.

 

1970-71

1972-73

1992-93

2013-14

2016-17

[wx_statman]

I think 2013-14 and 2016-17 both have to go down as a top 5 winters for the Willamette Valley since 1970. When looking at a combination of snow/cold.

 

1970-71

1972-73

1992-93

2013-14

2016-17

 

It's tough to leave 1978-79 out. But overall, I think you're very close to being right. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

I think 2013-14 and 2016-17 both have to go down as a top 5 winters for the Willamette Valley since 1970. When looking at a combination of snow/cold.

 

1970-71

1972-73

1992-93

2013-14

2016-17

 

If not top 5, very close to it. 

 

If I had to rank those years I would probably go

 

1) 70-71

2) 92-93

3) 13-14

4) 72-73

5) 16-17

 

I think 70-71 and 92-93 are pretty clearly the top 2 for the valley. You could make a really strong argument for any of the next 3 to be #3. All things equal I give 13-14 a SLIGHT edge, the December 72' cold wave was better than the Dec. 13' event. However, I think the cold/snow with the February 14' event tops the impressive January 73' cold snap which didn't have much snow in the valley. Can't go wrong with either winter. I put last winter in 5th as it really lacked the extreme arctic event. But you could argue placing it higher due to the number of minor to moderate events and persistent cold. Also the 1-3" of snow that fell across much of the mid-valley on March 6th was definitely a nice cherry on top.

[wx_statman]

Link to Oregonian article, which embedded an NWS storm report from February 2014:

 

http://www.oregonlive.com/weather/index.ssf/2014/02/oregon_weather_snow_continues.html

 

Note the reported snow totals of 18" in Corvallis, 15" in Albany, and 15" in Philomath. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

The morning of February 7th IMBY

 

[TigerWoodsLibido]

I think 2013-14 and 2016-17 both have to go down as a top 5 winters for the Willamette Valley since 1970. When looking at a combination of snow/cold.

 

1970-71

1972-73

1992-93

2013-14

2016-17

2008-09 was amazing too but it was only 10 days or so of cold and other than that we only had some fringe 500' events. So I guess it doesn't fit the category.

[Front Ranger]

2008-09 was amazing too but it was only 10 days or so of cold and other than that we only had some fringe 500' events. So I guess it doesn't fit the category.

 

Yeah, 2008-09 would rank higher except the south valley didn't do near as well.

 

Still, the Willamette Valley has probably seen 3 of the top 7 winters since 1970 in the past 9 years. Not bad at all.

[Doinko]

On 12/4/2017 at 11:03 PM, SilverFallsAndrew said:

 

If not top 5, very close to it. 

 

If I had to rank those years I would probably go

 

1) 70-71

2) 92-93

3) 13-14

4) 72-73

5) 16-17

 

I think 70-71 and 92-93 are pretty clearly the top 2 for the valley. You could make a really strong argument for any of the next 3 to be #3. All things equal I give 13-14 a SLIGHT edge, the December 72' cold wave was better than the Dec. 13' event. However, I think the cold/snow with the February 14' event tops the impressive January 73' cold snap which didn't have much snow in the valley. Can't go wrong with either winter. I put last winter in 5th as it really lacked the extreme arctic event. But you could argue placing it higher due to the number of minor to moderate events and persistent cold. Also the 1-3" of snow that fell across much of the mid-valley on March 6th was definitely a nice cherry on top.

Old thread but there was a COOP station at around 950ft elevation near the Sylvan area in Portland that recorded 70.9" of snow in 1970-71!