1 lightning, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Pendleton, OR wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 16, 1:30 PM PST, 4 hours 55 minutes earlier.
NORTHEAST OREGON/SOUTHEAST WASHINGTON FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PENDLETON OR 230 PM PDT THU AUG 16 2001 SATELLITE SHOWING WEAK DISTURBANCE IN SOUTHWESTERLY FLOW ON TRACK TO MOVE OVER THE AREA THIS EVENING. SO EVEN WITH LIMITED MOISTURE AND INSTABILITY...CAN NOT TOTALLY RULE OUT A SLIGHT CHANCE OF CONVECTION OVER THE MOUNTAINS. HOWEVER...CONFIDENCE IS LOW. OTHERWISE... THERMAL TROUGH SHIFTING EASTWARD TONIGHT...AS IS UPPER RIDGE... ALLOWING THE CUT OFF LOW OVER THE EASTERN PACIFIC TO LIFT NORTHEAST INTO BRITISH COLUMBIA. ASSOCIATED MARINE PUSH ALREADY GENERATING WINDY CONDITIONS IN THE GORGE...WINDS EXPECTED TO INCREASE ACROSS THE REST OF THE AREA TONIGHT. UPPER FLOW BECOMING MORE ZONAL FOR FRIDAY AND SATURDAY...THE DECREASE IN THICKNESSES AND 850 MB TEMPS WILL TRANSLATE INTO AROUND A 10 DEGREE DROP OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS. MJB. EXTENDED...A DRY WESTERLY FLOW ALOFT WILL ESTABLISH ITSELF OVER THE FORECAST AREA SUNDAY AND MONDAY. THE MEDIUM-RANGE MODELS PAST DAY 4 DIFFER SIGNIFICANTLY. BELIEVE THE MRF IS THE ODD MODEL AS IT IS NOT CONSISTENT AND EVEN DIFFERS FROM THE 12Z AVN. WILL DISREGARD ITS SOLUTION TO MOVE THE UPPER TROUGH OVER THE PACIFIC NW DURING THE MID WEEK. FOR NOW...WILL GO WITH THE ECMWF SOLUTION TO KEEP THE TROUGH OFFSHORE WITH THE FLOW BACKING TO THE SW BY WED. WILL KEEP SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND T-STORMS BOTH WED AND THURS. SMITH PDT 0000 ALW 0000 PSC 0000 YKM 0000 .KPDT...WSR-88D...VCP32/CSR21...OPERATIONAL. .KPDT...NONE.
The Pendleton radar (KPDT), 78 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 02:25 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
Lightning struck a power pole in the town of Imbler, cutting power to around 260 customers of the Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative for around 3 hours. Other brief outages nearby in Elgin affected fewer than 50 residents.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Oregon in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyWarnings in Oregon, August 2001
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5268726.