Heavy snow fell across central and east-central Oregon January 3rd and 4th.
Every event with a place to put it; 4 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 episode as NWS PDT wrote it up.
Heavy snow fell across central and east-central Oregon January 3rd and 4th.
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 Jan 3, 2:44 PM PST, 1 minute earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Pendleton OR
244 PM PST Tue Jan 3 2017
.SHORT TERM...Tonight through Thursday night...The main weather story
for tonight and tomorrow will be the impending winter storm for
Central and east central Oregon. The rest of the forecast area won't
be dealing with heavy snow...but will see very cold temperatures and
wind chills. The latest radar composite is showing snow beginning to
develop in far southern Deschutes County. This snow is still
expected to lift northward...impacting Bend and Redmond by 6 PM this
evening. The snow will continue, becoming moderate to even heavy at
times overnight across Deschutes...Crook...Jefferson
...Wheeler and Grant counties. Snowfall rates may reach 1 inch per
hour at times...especially in Central Oregon and along the East
Slopes of the OR Cascades. North or northeast winds of 10-20 MPH
will also create areas of blowing and drifting snow within the
Warning and advisory area. All warnings and advisories are continued
and are in effect through 4 PM Wednesday. Please see the latest
PDXWSWPDT for more details. The models continue to indicate the snow
will have a very tough time moving northeast of a line from about
Dufur to Heppner and Ukiah. North of this line very little if any
snow is expected from this storm. The northern portions of the
advisory zones may receive only light snow amounts...of under 2
inches. Meanwhile the southern parts of these zones (North-central
Oregon...Southern Blue Mtn Foothills and the Southern Blue Mtns)
Still look to have a good shot at advisory level snow. Snow
continues across the southern half to third of the forecast area
through the day on Wednesday before gradually tapering off and
ending late Wednesday afternoon or evening. Temperatures will be
very cold through the short term period. Low temperatures tonight
will range from 5 to 15 above zero...but brisk winds will create
wind chills between 0 to 15 below zero. An SPS will be issued to
highlight this concern...especially over portions of Southern
Washington. Temperatures will not recover very much during the day
tomorrow...with highs only reaching into the teens areawide.
Conditions will begin to gradually clear Wednesday night and into
Thursday as a dry northerly flow and surface high pressure build
into the CWA. The latest guidance is trending even colder for low
temperatures Wednesday night and Thursday night and the latest
forecast is now reflecting these trends. Look for lows between 15
below zero to 5 above zero each night. 77
.LONG TERM...Friday through Tuesday. High pressure will bring dry
conditions to the region Friday and Friday night before a low
pressure system approaches the region Saturday and spreads clouds
into central Oregon. The clouds along with developing showers will
migrate ne into the remainder of the region Saturday afternoon and
night. A challenge could be with the warmer southwest flow possibly
overrunning colder subfreezing surface temps and mixed pcpn should
occur for the weekend. The latter part of the weekend could be more
of a challenge depending on the timing of the departing colder
surface air and feel this could linger and a mix of pcpn should
occur over portions of the columbia basin Sunday. As the low
pressure moves away from our area Monday some additional colder air
will be pulled down into the region and a return to mostly snow
showers should occur by Tuesday.
&&
.AVIATION...areas of mvfr and ifr conditions can be expected at taf
sites krdm and kbdn in periods of snow through tonight and into
Wednesday. Elsewhere mainly vfr conditions can be expected except
for taf sites kalw and kpdt that may experience some mvfr ceilings
especially in occasional light snow that should decrease tonight. By
Wednesday taf site kdls could experience lcl mvfr conditions in snow
showers after 12z.
&&
.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
PDT 9 11 2 11 / 10 10 10 10
ALW 10 15 6 11 / 10 0 0 0
PSC 9 18 3 14 / 10 0 0 0
YKM 5 21 0 18 / 0 0 0 0
HRI 10 18 3 13 / 10 10 0 0
ELN 5 18 0 16 / 0 0 0 0
RDM 7 13 -7 11 / 100 100 30 10
LGD 13 17 -1 11 / 30 30 10 10
GCD 15 23 5 17 / 90 80 40 10
DLS 17 23 5 16 / 20 30 10 0
&&
.PDT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
OR...Winter Storm Warning until 4 PM PST Wednesday for ORZ505-506-509-
511.
Winter Weather Advisory until 4 PM PST Wednesday for ORZ503-508-
510.
WA...None.
&&
77/97/97The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
4 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
Measured snow fall of 5.8 inches in Dayville, Grant county. Elevation 2400 feet.
Measured snow fall of 20 inches since the previous afternoon, 5 miles south of Bend in Deschutes county.
Measured snow fall of 7.5 inches, 3 miles south-southeast of Prineville in Crook county. Elevation 3290 feet.
Measured snow fall of 12 inches since the previous afternoon, 8 miles northwest of Terrebonne in Jefferson county. Also had snow drifts up to 3 feet in height.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Oregon in 2017Every state in 2017This day in weather historyWarnings in Oregon, January 2017
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: 675733, 675725, 675730, 675727.