A strong low pressure system moving up the coast from the south brought strong southerly winds across all of southwest Washington. The strongest winds were recorded along the coast, but winds observed in the southwest interior weren't much weaker than what was observed along the coast.
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.
A strong low pressure system moving up the coast from the south brought strong southerly winds across all of southwest Washington. The strongest winds were recorded along the coast, but winds observed in the southwest interior weren't much weaker than what was observed along the coast.
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 Jan 5, 9:05 PM PST, 59 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Portland OR
905 PM PST Sat Jan 5 2019
.SYNOPSIS...Surface low pressure off the northwest Oregon coast will
lift northward and bring a strong burst of southwest wind to western
Oregon and southwest Washington tonight. This system will also spread
rain across the forecast area and snow in the Cascades tonight
through Sunday. Another weaker low pressure system is expected to
move onshore near the OR/CA border Sunday night, continuing chances
for showers. After a mostly dry Monday, seasonably damp weather looks
to continue through much of the week, perhaps drying out toward
Friday.
&&
.SHORT TERM...Tonight through Tuesday...Elongated surface trough is
offshore with low center off the Northwest Oregon coast at 04Z and
strong north-south pressure gradient in its wake and southeast
quadrant. Surface cold front extends southeastward from the low
center with strong pressure rises associated with fropa, and rapidly
increasing postfrontal winds. This trend is expected to continue as
the low lifts northward tonight. Surface obs show winds gusted to 37
kts at EUG (04Z) and 44 kt SLE (05Z). Based on the SPC high-res
ensemble forecast (HREF) depiction, wind advisory conditions
continue to move fairly quickly northward, reaching PDX metro by
06Z. The existing High Wind Warning for the Coast and Coast Range,
and Wind Advisory interior northwest Oregon and southwest Washington
look good. The other story is quickly lowering snow levels
overnight, reaching 2000-3000 feet MSL by Sunday morning. No changes
to the existing WSW through Sunday for the Cascades. The remainder
of the AFD is unchanged. Bright
As the occluded front wraps in and cooler air aloft associated with
the upper trough push in, air mass becomes more unstable. Model
soundings suggests a threat for thunderstorms later tonight, with the
best chances along the coast. Inland areas, esp considering the time
of night, see a reduced threat, but for now will retain the slight
chance for thunderstorms late tonight into the Willamette Valley.
Another shortwave rotating through the upper trough arrives Sun
afternoon, headed inland over western OR. General trend with models
is for a more or less open trough at the surface, although some
outlier model solutions include a respectable closed low in the
NAM80. As the trend overall though has been for a less organized
system, will go along with the open trough solution. This maintains
a showery onshore flow from late tonight into Sun night, with
progressively lowering snow levels as the cool trough aloft moves
across. This will translate into an extended period of snow showers
for the Cascades, with the heaviest showers likely occurring in the
strong flow behind the low later tonight, then gradually weakening
through Sun night. Will retain the winter weather advisory for the
Cascades through midnight Sun night.
A transient upper ridge moves across the region Mon and Mon night,
bringing a lull if not a stop to shower activity Mon. The next
system on the horizon is a deep wound-up low that models bring to
around 40N 140W by 00Z Tue. Isentropic charts show modest isentropic
lift shifting north across the forecast area Mon night into early
Tue with moisture mainly confined to mid and upper levels. Deeper
moisture is likely slower to arrive, more like Tue as a weakening
cold front arrives at the coast. This will bring increasing pops Mon
night and Tue, but weak dynamics will keep most areas with just
chance to likely pops.
.LONG TERM...Tuesday night through Saturday...The active pattern
continues over the northeast Pacific, with another system bringing
additional rain Tuesday night through Thursday. This should just be
a typical low impact front, as the system is originating from the
tropics. As a result snow levels will be coming up with this system
to 5500 to 6000 feet on Tuesday, and will start to gradually lower
behind the front to around 5000 to 5500 feet through the day on
Wednesday, and will hold around that level into late next week.
Thursday night the models are showing a shortwave ridge that looks
to develop, but overall this will have minimal impact except for a
slight increase in temperatures for the area. Forecast models show
another system approaching on Friday, but diverge significantly on
the track. This is making the end of the extended a challenge to
forecast, because of the uncertainty as to where the next system
will have the greatest impact. Therefore have kept temperatures
slightly above normal, and kept PoPs slightly lower. /42
&&
.AVIATION...South winds 25 to 35 kt with gusts as high as 40 kt
inland and 45 kt at the coast are spreading north this evening.
Winds will be short-lived and drop within an hour or two of
peaking. Mainly VFR conditions through early Sunday morning. Then
models suggest a warm front will spread north late Sun morning
with increased chances for MVFR CIG and/or vis by 18Z and
possibly lasting through the rest of the day. Another smaller
wind peak will occur out of the south late morning or early
afternoon as well, but gusts should be limited to around 25 to 30
kt.
KPDX AND APPROACHES...Abrupt shift to south wind expected around
06Z with gusts to 35 kt. Will likely see MVFR CIG after 17Z
Sunday as a warm front moves through the area.
&&
.MARINE...No changes. 19Z ASCAT pass showed solid 35-40 kt wind
over the North California waters on the SE quadrant of the
surface low. The 03 hr NAM forecast appeared to be a little too
far north based on satellite imagery. The 12Z guidance is
slightly slower with the low pres progression northward. Latest
NAM is a little weaker with boundary layer wind speeds for this
evening compared to previous couple of runs. Strongest wind over
the south zones looks to occur between 01Z and 05Z Sun and 03Z to
07Z for the north zones. Still holding at peak gusts to 45 kt.
More model differences arise for late tonight and Sun. The 18Z
NAM appears to be the most aggressive developing another surface
low out near 43N 128W 12Z Sun. This is slightly more north than
the 12Z depiction. The 18Z version moves the low to near buoy
46050 by 18Z Sun, instead of Cape Arago as the 12Z showed. The
ECMWF and GFS are weaker with this feature. In any event, would
anticipate potential 25-30 kt gusts over PZZ255 and PZZ275 Sun
morning.
Models show another deep low taking shape near 40N 138W Mon
night. The GFS indicates a sub-970 mb low pres center at that
time. This low looks to stay well offshore, but close enough to
produce gale force gusts over the outer waters Tue through Wed.
The active pattern continues late in the week with another strong
low forecast to move into the NE Pac.
Seas hovering around 10 ft early this afternoon, but that will
change tonight. The strong wind and associated large wind-wave
component will boost combined seas into the mid to upper teens
between 06Z and 12Z Sun. There is the possibility of 20 ft seas
should the wind be stronger than forecast and last longer than
expected. Seas ease below 10 ft Sun afternoon.
Guidance indicates possible 20-25 ft seas mid-week, but the
highest energy will be over the outer waters. Elevated seas,
generally teens or higher, look to persist late next week and
possibly into next weekend. Weishaar
&&
.PQR WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
OR...Winter Weather Advisory until midnight PST Sunday night for
Cascades in Lane County-Northern Oregon Cascades.
Wind Advisory until 4 AM PST Sunday for Central Willamette
Valley-Greater Portland Metro Area.
Wind Advisory until 6 AM PST Sunday for Lower Columbia.
High Wind Warning until 2 AM PST Sunday for Central Coast Range
of Western Oregon-Central Oregon Coast.
Wind Advisory until 2 AM PST Sunday for South Willamette Valley.
High Wind Warning until 4 AM PST Sunday for Coast Range of
Northwest Oregon-North Oregon Coast.
WA...Winter Weather Advisory until midnight PST Sunday night for
South Washington Cascades.
Wind Advisory until 4 AM PST Sunday for Greater Vancouver Area.
Wind Advisory until 6 AM PST Sunday for I-5 Corridor in Cowlitz
County.
High Wind Warning until 6 AM PST Sunday for South Washington
Coast-Willapa Hills.
PZ...Gale Warning until 4 AM PST Sunday for Coastal Waters from Cape
Shoalwater WA to Cascade Head OR out 60 NM.
Gale Warning until 1 AM PST Sunday for Coastal Waters from
Cascade Head OR to Florence OR out 60 NM.
Small Craft Advisory for Rough Columbia River Bar until 4 AM
PST Sunday.
&&
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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.PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PORTLAND OR
937 PM PST SAT JAN 5 2019
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0816 PM NON-TSTM WND GST CAPE FOULWEATHER 44.78N 124.07W
01/05/2019 M65.00 MPH LINCOLN OR MESONET
SOUTH WIND 31 MPH GUSTING TO 65 MPH AT CWOP SITE AR160.
0828 PM NON-TSTM WND GST 4 S YAQUINA HEAD 44.62N 124.07W
01/05/2019 M62.00 MPH LINCOLN OR MESONET
SOUTHWEST WIND 45 MPH GUSTING TO 62 MPH ON THE YAQUINA
BAY BRIDGE.
&&
ABOWENPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PORTLAND OR
939 PM PST SAT JAN 5 2019
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0915 AM NON-TSTM WND GST GLENEDEN BEACH 44.88N 124.03W
01/05/2019 M58 MPH LINCOLN OR MESONET
SSW WIND 46 MPH GUSTING TO 58 MPH. CWOP SITE C9821.
&&
ABOWENPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...CORRECTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PORTLAND OR
940 PM PST SAT JAN 5 2019
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0915 PM NON-TSTM WND GST GLENEDEN BEACH 44.88N 124.03W
01/05/2019 M58.00 MPH LINCOLN OR MESONET
SSW WIND 46 MPH GUSTING TO 58 MPH. CWOP SITE C9821.
&&
ABOWEN2 high wind, 1 strong wind. Local standard time, as filed.
A weather station on Cape Disappointment recorded sustained winds up to 51 mph with gusts up to 69 mph. Another weather station on Megler Bridge recorded sustained winds up to 49 mph with gusts up to 65 mph. Ocean Park also saw wind gusts up to 62 mph.
Weather stations recorded wind gusts up to 40 to 45 mph, with stronger winds recorded just south at the Portland Airport, which recorded wind gusts up to 54 mph. Most impacts were observed closer to the Columbia River in Vancouver. At one point, Clark County PUD said close to 100,000 customers lost power. A power failure in Clark County triggered a sewage spill near the bridge spanning Salmon Creek. Two NWS employees had trees blow down in their yards in Vancouver.
The Abernathy RAWS recorded sustained winds up to 53 mph with gusts up to 84 mph.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Washington in 2019Every state in 2019This day in weather historyWarnings in Washington, January 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: 802478, 802479, 802477.