The Cascades and Hood River Valley area had a heavy snow event on November 26 through the 27th with values ranging from 13 to 28 inches.
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 PQR wrote it up.
The Cascades and Hood River Valley area had a heavy snow event on November 26 through the 27th with values ranging from 13 to 28 inches.
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 Portland, OR wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Nov 26, 9:51 AM PST, 2 hours 9 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Portland OR
951 AM PST Tue Nov 26 2019
.SYNOPSIS...A strong low pressure moving into far southern Oregon
will bring heavy snow to the Cascades and even some light snow to the
Coast Range and southern Willamette Valley tonight. Expect mainly
cold and dry weather Wednesday through the first half of the weekend,
before additional winter weather will be possible during the second
half of the weekend and early next week.
&&
.SHORT TERM...Today through Thursday...Inherited forecast appears
largely on track this morning so grid updates this morning mostly
involved minor tweaks.
An intense surface low pressure is rapidly intensifying across the
eastern Pacific this morning as it dives southeastward towards the
Oregon/California border. Northwest Oregon and southwest Washington
will be spared the brunt of this storm system, but colder and drier
spreading westward to the north of the low pressure track will lower
snow levels today and tonight and usher in colder temperatures that
will linger into the upcoming weekend. Expect breezy to windy east
to northeast winds to develop across much of the CWA this afternoon
and evening, but wind gusts should generally remain below headline
criteria.
Main updates this morning were to lower PoPs across our northern
zones including our north coast, southwest Washington and the
northern half of the Willamette Valley late this afternoon into
tonight. Between drier air filtering into the region from the east
and the projected storm track, it appears precipitation will be hard
to come by late this afternoon and beyond in these aforementioned
areas. On the other hand, it appears increasingly likely a
deformation band will setup across our southern zones late this
afternoon into this evening. Our typically reliable NBM guidance
keeps snow levels well above the valley floors for much of the night.
However, several model soundings including the NAM and the UW-WRF
GFS suggest the column may become isothermal for a period later this
evening into tonight underneath this band of steadier precipitation
across the southern Willamette Valley. This scenario would likely
lower snow levels to the valley floor or at least very near the
valley floor. Continued to reflect this possibility in the forecast
grids by keeping some light snow accumulations in the grids, but did
not put all the forecast QPF into snow accumulations given the
uncertainty either. In addition, the strong easterly flow at 925-
850mb across our CWA will also act to create some drying of the
atmospheric column over the Cascade foothills and eastern Willamette
Valley late this afternoon and evening. It will however, act to
upslope into the east slopes of the Coast Range and likely aid in an
enhancement of precipitation across the western portions of the
Willamette Valley. As a result, locations like Corvallis, Philomath
and Veneta may stand a better chance of accumulating snow than
places like Eugene and Springfield. Nonetheless, confidence in this
level of detail is still somewhat low.
Other than that, lowered PoPs across much of the CWA late tonight and
Wednesday given model consensus on precipitation generally shifting
south and east of the region. The main exception to this was right
along the Cascade crest where northeasterly flow will continue to
upslope and keep snow going well into Wednesday across the east
slopes of the Cascades and the immediate Cascade crest. Snow showers
will likely linger into Wednesday night and possibly even Thursday
morning along the crest, but it should finally dry out and clear up
even across the top of the Cascades on Thursday.
Partly cloudy skies and cold temperatures will then be the name of
the game Thursday and Friday across the entire CWA. /Neuman
.LONG TERM...Thursday night through Monday...Operational models
continue to remain in agreement into the later part of the week.
Models are showing the remnants of the low from Tuesday/Wednesday
swing back into the eastern side of the Cascades. This looks to
cause the formation of a thermal low within the Willamette Valley
and an increase in easterly winds through Thursday. These easterly
winds look to be dry and cold. So, expect little to no precipitation
through Friday. Saturday, a weaker low swings in from the south west
bringing another round of precipitation. This precipitation looks to
start off as a rain/snow mix at lower elevations, with a better
chance for snow at higher elevations. Sunday through Monday expect a
warming and drying trend. /42
&&
.AVIATION...Scattered showers in moist northwest unstable flow will
continue today with a mix of MVFR and VFR conditions. Rain will
become more persistent later this afternoon, especially south of
Salem as a deep low pressure approaches the OR/CA border. The rain
south of Salem may be heavy at times with visibility lowering to
MVFR or IFR this afternoon and evening. Gusty east winds will
develop this afternoon and evening as the low nears the south Oregon
coast.
Snow levels lower tonight down to near the valley floor. The rain
decreases in the northern part of the region as the snow levels
lower, but will persist south of KSLE. Expect the rain to turn to
snow later tonight south of Corvallis with predominately MVFR
ceilings through Wed morning in the southern Willamette Valley,
which includes KEUG. Snow is also likely for the Cascades and near
Hood River.
KPDX AND APPROACHES...MVFR with isolated showers this morning,
improving to VFR this afternoon. East winds will increase this
afternoon with gusts up to 40 kt possible for the eastern approaches
and KTTD late this afternoon and evening. Showers should end this
evening before the surface temperatures lower to near freezing
tonight, so do not expect any snow for the airport. /tw/~TJ
&&
.MARINE...The northwest swell is expected to slowly subside today
and tonight, but it is not clear that it will be quick enough to
drop below 10 ft over the northern inner waters to warrant
completely dropping small craft headlines for the the afternoon.
Will bridge time between the morning and late afternoon advisories
for PZZ250. Elsewhere the more important headline is gales
developing this afternoon as an intense southeast moving low
pressure system heads toward the coast along the California/Oregon
border area, likely making landfall by 6 PM today. The southern
outer waters will be clipped by the strongest winds just to the
north of the low track, rapidly increasing this afternoon and into
tonight. Storm force gusts appear likely over the southern half of
PZZ275 by late afternoon and through the evening, so will upgrade to
a storm warning there. Steep seas will build quickly in response to
the strengthening winds, and will come to be dominated by the short
period locally generated seas tonight.
Winds will decrease Wednesday as the low pressure system continues
to move inland and weakens. Winds are expected to drop below gales
by late morning, and the associated steep short period seas will
also subside leaving a northwest swell around 12 seconds to dominate
by afternoon. East to northeast breezes can be expected Thursday and
Friday, with peak gusts likely around 20 kt.
&&
.PQR WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
OR...Winter Weather Advisory from noon today to 10 AM PST Wednesday
for Central Coast Range of Western Oregon-South Willamette
Valley.
Winter Weather Advisory from noon today to noon PST Wednesday
for Cascade Foothills in Lane County-Central Columbia
River Gorge-Northern Oregon Cascade Foothills-Upper Hood
River Valley.
Winter Storm Warning from 10 AM this morning to noon PST
Wednesday for Cascades in Lane County.
Winter Storm Warning from noon today to noon PST Wednesday for
Northern Oregon Cascades.
WA...Winter Weather Advisory from noon today to noon PST Wednesday
for Central Columbia River Gorge.
PZ...Small Craft Advisory until 10 AM PST this morning for coastal
waters from Cape Shoalwater WA to Florence OR out 60 NM.
Gale Warning from 4 PM this afternoon to 10 AM PST Wednesday
for Waters from Cape Shoalwater WA to Cascade Head OR from
10 to 60 NM.
Gale Warning from 4 PM this afternoon to 4 AM PST Wednesday for
Coastal waters from Cascade Head to Florence OR out 10 NM.
Small Craft Advisory from 4 PM this afternoon to 10 PM PST
Wednesday for Coastal waters from Cape Shoalwater WA to
Cascade Head OR out 10 NM.
Gale Warning from 10 AM this morning to 10 AM PST Wednesday for
Waters from Cascade Head to Florence OR from 10 to 60 NM.
Small Craft Advisory until 8 PM PST this evening for Columbia
River Bar.
&&
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This discussion is for Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington
from the Cascade crest to 60 nautical miles offshore. This area is
commonly referred to as the forecast area.2 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
Multiple locations reported snow amounts ranging from 13 to 28 inches. The locations include Timberline Lodge at 13 inches along with wind gusts up to 54 mph, Santiam Pass with 18 inches along with winds gusts up to 35 mph, Red Hill with 23 inches and Bennett Pass with 28 inches.
The Parkdale ODOT maintenance yard reported a total of 16 inches of snow accumulation. Also, a CoCoRaHS site 10 miles south of Hood River reported 8.6 inches of snow. Much of this came within an 8-12 hour period.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Oregon in 2019Every state in 2019This day in weather historyWarnings in Oregon, November 2019
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: 866559, 866564.