High Wind in Washington, August 16, 2002

An unseasonable high wind event took place across north-central and parts of northeast Washington early on the morning of August 16. The event took place when a combination of unseasonably strong jet stream winds, a cold front from the northwest and high pressure from Canada built southward. Most notably, the windstorm caused millions of dollars in damage to fruit trees in the Okanogan Valley, where approximately 45,000 bins of maturing apples and pears were blown off trees. Much more fruit was damaged but left on the tree. Many other trees were blown over altogether. In several cases up and down the Okanogan Valley, homes were severely damaged when the wind blew large trees over onto them. The Okanogan PUD estimated damage to power lines and poles around $100,000. Several of the downed power lines sparked wildfires. (For more on the wildfires, see the separate entries.) In Ferry County, numerous trees were blown over or uprooted. One private timber owner near Republic reported six truck loads of timber down in just one small area. Further east, a newspaper photo showed a large tree blown over in one of Deer Park's city parks. Even in other parts of Spokane County where wind gusts did not reach high wind criteria, the gusts of 40-45 mph from an unusual northwesterly direction were enough to blow down scattered trees that are more capable of handling prevailing winds from the southwest. The following is a listing of peak wind gust measured at various sites: Oroville RAWS...77 mph, Kramer RAWS (9 S Omak)...59 mph, Omak ASOS...55 mph, Kettle Falls RAWS...52 mph, Spring Canyon RAWS (near Grand Coulee Dam)...51 mph, Deer Mountain RAWS (4 N Ione)...51 mph, and Spokane International...40 mph (from the northwest).