Flash Flood, Baker
- When
- June 23, 1:25 PM PST to 2:45 PM PST
- Where
- Baker County, 10 mi W of Dixie
- Reported by
- LAW ENFORCEMENT
- Coordinates
- 44.709, -117.675 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
Flash Flooding in Oregon, June 23, 2002
Slow-moving thunderstorms dropped very heavy rainfall over the Rye Valley area near the Baker-Malheur County line. A 150 foot long section of Dixie Creek Road was covered with over a foot of mud and a section of Rye Valley Road, near the county line, was washed out including nearby telephone lines.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it; 2 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- None recorded
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 2
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.
What happened
The episode as NWS BOI wrote it up.
Slow-moving thunderstorms dropped very heavy rainfall over the Rye Valley area near the Baker-Malheur County line. A 150 foot long section of Dixie Creek Road was covered with over a foot of mud and a section of Rye Valley Road, near the county line, was washed out including nearby telephone lines.
What forecasters said that day
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 Boise, ID wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jun 23, 12:55 PM PST, 30 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Jun 23, 12:55 PM PST, 30 minutes before
SOUTHWEST IDAHO/SOUTHEAST OREGON AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BOISE IDAHO 300 PM MDT SUN JUNE 23 2002 THIS AFTERNOONS ISOLATED TO SCATTERED MOUNTAIN THUNDERSTORMS ARE THE RESULT OF A MOIST AIR MASS AND DIURNAL HEATING INDUCED INSTABILITY CAUSING MODERATE TO HIGH CAPE VALUES. ONLY WEAK DYNAMICS ALOFT SO CELLS ARE PULSE TYPE ERUPTING OVER FAVORED OROGRAPHIC REGIONS. THIS ACTIVITY WILL QUICKLY DIE WITH THE SUN THIS EVENING. SHORT TERM...LIGHT SOUTHWEST FLOW ALOFT OVER FORECAST AREA FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS WITH INCREASING TEMPERATURES. AIR MASS REMAINS RATHER MOIST WITH PRECIPITABLE WATER EXPECTED TO BE IN THE 0.5 TO 0.7 INCH RANGE THROUGH TUESDAY AT LEAST. ENOUGH MOISTURE TO WORK WITH AFTERNOON HEATING INDUCED INSTABILITY FOR CONVECTIVE DEVELOPMENT OVER THE MOUNTAINS AND HIGHLANDS EACH AFTERNOON AND EVENING. ON MONDAY EVENING A WEAK TRANSIENT DISTURBANCE VISIBLE ON THE WATER VAPOR LOOP OFF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA MAY MAINTAIN SOME SOUTHWEST HIGHLANDS CELLS LONG ENOUGH FOR THEM TO WANDER OVER THE TREASURE AND MAGIC VALLEYS SO WILL ADD A SLIGHT CHANCE THREAT HERE MONDAY EVENING. OTHERWISE LOTS OF SUN AND TEMPERATURES GETTING DOWNRIGHT HOT. AVN MODEL SEEMS TO GRASP CURRENT SITUATION WELL AND WILL USE THIS AS MAIN GUIDANCE. BY WEDNESDAY THE INTERMOUNTAIN WEST RIDGE PUMPS UP FOR PROBABLY THE WARMEST TEMPERATURES OF THE WEEK, LIKELY SOME TRIPLE DIGIT VALLEY HIGH TEMPERATURES. EXTENDED...SSMI PRECIPITABLE WATER PRODUCT SHOWS A VERY MOIST AIR MASS OVER THE PACIFIC. WHILE THE MAIN RIDGE OVER THE INTERMOUNTAIN WEST WILL GENERALLY CAUSE THIS MOISTURE TO RIDE OVER THE TOP TO THE NORTH OF THE FORECAST AREA, BY THURSDAY A DEEP FETCH OF MOISTURE FEEDS INTO OREGON WHILE A STRONGER DISTURBANCE NEAR VANCOUVER ISLE TRIES TO BREAK DOWN THE RIDGE OVER IDAHO. THIS ARGUES FOR SLIGHTLY COOLER HIGHS ON THURSDAY AND FRIDAY WITH A RETURN OF MOUNTAIN THUNDERSTORMS BY FRIDAY IN THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINS AND EASTERN OREGON ZONES. WHILE THE OLD AND NEW MRF MODELS ARE IN GOOD AGREEMENT FOR THURSDAY AND FRIDAY OUTLINED ABOVE, BY SATURDAY THE MODELS DIVERGE AS THE NEW RUN SEVERELY WEAKENS THE OLD RUNS INTERMOUNTAIN UPPER LEVEL HIGH AND MOVES THE NEXT PACIFIC TROUGH ONTO THE COAST FASTER. THE RUN TO RUN CHANGE IS SO DRAMATIC THAT CONFIDENCE IS LOW FOR DAYS 6 AND 7 UNTIL MORE CONSISTENCY IS OBSERVED. WILL GO WITH CONTINUED ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES WITH CHANCE OF MOUNTAIN THUNDERSTORMS OVER THE EASTERN OREGON ZONES, OTHERWISE DRY AND CONTINUED VERY WARM THROUGH THE WEEKEND. /FUGAZZI .BOI...NONE.
The radar
The Pendleton radar (KPDT), 143 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:22 UTC.
Event by event
2 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.
Flash Flood, Malheur
- When
- June 23, 2:25 PM MST to 3:45 PM MST
- Where
- Malheur County, 8 mi E of Malheur City
- Reported by
- LAW ENFORCEMENT
- Coordinates
- 43.193, -117.623 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
What these are
- Flash Flood
- Flooding that begins within six hours of the rain that causes it, or of a dam or levee failure or ice jam release, often with deadly speed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Tornadoes in South Dakota, June 23, 2002
- Flash Flood and Lightning Strike in Wisconsin, June 23 to 24, 2002
- Damaging Winds and Lightning Strike in Maine, June 23 to 24, 2002
- Hail and Damaging Winds in South Dakota, June 23 to 24, 2002
- Tornado in North Dakota, June 23, 2002
- Hail and Damaging Wind in North Dakota, June 23, 2002
- Damaging Winds in New York, June 23, 2002
- Damaging Winds in New Hampshire, June 23, 2002
- Damaging Winds in Vermont, June 23, 2002
- Marine Thunderstorm Wind in St. Lawrence River, June 23, 2002
- Damaging Winds in Vermont, June 23, 2002
- Damaging Winds in Vermont, June 23, 2002
More
Every storm in Oregon in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in Oregon, June 2002
Sources
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: 5304944, 5304945.