A cold front and upper level trough in northwest flow aloft resulted in another round of light to moderate snowfall across the forecast area starting during the day on Sunday Feb. 14th through the morning of Monday February 15th.
Every event with a place to put it; 3 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.
A cold front and upper level trough in northwest flow aloft resulted in another round of light to moderate snowfall across the forecast area starting during the day on Sunday Feb. 14th through the morning of Monday February 15th.
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 Feb 14, 3:45 AM PST, 4 hours 15 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Pendleton OR
345 AM PST Sun Feb 14 2021
.SHORT TERM...
Today through Tuesday night...Northwesterly flow will prevail
across the region today and dry weather will start the day off.
However, another system and frontal boundary will approach the
area and more snow is expected by afternoon with the
heaviest/steadiest snow occurring overnight. Warmer air will be
moving in from the south, so there is the possibility of freezing
rain, especially over central Oregon and the Ochoco/John Day
Highlands/John Day Basin/ Temperatures are expected be marginal on
Sunday across central Oregon and may get close to, if not above
freezing. Temperatures will get well above freezing in central
Oregon, the Ochoco John Day Highlands and John Day Basin on
Monday which would ultimately limit the extent of any freezing and
frozen precipitation.
By late morning Monday, the snow should be coming to an end across
the lower elevations but snow is expected to linger over the
mountains into Tuesday in strong northwesterly flow.
Winter storm warnings have been issued for the Cascades, Blues,
Blue Mountain Foothills and most of the higher elevation zones.
Winter Weather advisories have been issued most everywhere else.
There will be some gusty winds starting tonight and continuing
through Tuesday, which will cause blowing and drifting of snow.
High temperatures will finally begin a warming trend. Today will
mainly be in the low to mid 20s, though portions of central Oregon
will reach near or possibly into the 30s.
Monday will see everywhere into the 30s, with central Oregon into
the 40s and Tuesday will see most locations in the upper 30s to
lower 40s. Tonight's lows will be in the teens and 20s, then
predominantly 20s and 30s.
.LONG TERM...
WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY... An upper level ridge nudges up
against the PacNW coast as a surface high pressure pushes into
northwest OR and continues through south-central OR and into
northern NV by Wednesday evening. Northwest flow aloft will
continue to keep upslope snowfall occurring along the Cascades,
but should taper off through much of the day Wednesday due to the
incoming high pressure and associated drier air.
The high continues southeast into the Wasatch Mountains Thursday as
the ridge flattens and suppresses south and east into CA. This will
open the door to an incoming system from the northwest, providing
additional mountain snow to the Cascades and eastern mountains. Snow
levels will be creeping up along with this system as it pulls
moisture from the central Pacific originating near HI. They are set
to increase from central OR through Thursday morning. Snow levels
for central OR are expected to range from 4500-5500 feet, 2000-3000
feet in the Basin, and around 1000 feet along the east slopes of the
WA Cascades. Cold air will get trapped along the east slopes of the
WA Cascades through the event as the highest snow levels will only
get to 1000-1500 feet. Rain is expected along the Basin, with snow
above 2000 feet. Westerly flow will continue through Thursday and
Friday, keeping an influx of Pacific moisture that will allow
mountain snowfall to be persistent through the end of the week and
into the weekend.
The next system looks slightly more robust in precip and approaches
the OR coast Saturday morning and drives through our area through
the day with lingering snow and showers into Sunday. Snow levels
should be back down to 1000-2500 feet across the entire area, with
higher amounts southeast to northeast respectively, but will
steadily climb through the weekend to 4000-5000 feet by Sunday
afternoon.
Guidance is still in agreement about a slight warming trend through
the extended period, and hinting at a bigger uptick through the
weekend. The GFS and ECMWF are both expecting highs will break into
the low to mid-50s Sunday for lower elevations. Ensemble clusters
show the most confidence in the ECMWF outcome, which shows a weaker
CONUS trough and slightly weaker ridge that is more aggressive in
infiltrating into northern CA and southeast OR. This correlates to
allowing warmer air to slide in along with the system, which may
correlate in the need to bump up snow levels as the event nears.
Currently, snow levels reflect this potential and also is not as
bullish due to uncertainty. When viewing the second (weekend)
system, guidance is not in very good agreement. Cluster ensembles
show a real split between the GFS and the ECMWF. The difference is
two-fold, as the GFS hints at a flat a weak ridge offshore of
southern CA, as flow aloft incurs a more WSW component. The ECMWF,
on the other hand, keeps the ridge stronger and focuses it more
offshore to provide a more WNW flow aloft. These differences help to
trend a wetter and warmer weekend with the GFS outcome, whereas the
ECMWF is the colder and slightly drier outcome. Conditions should
begin to dry out heading into the early part of the workweek as
another transient ridge builds, with long-term models bringing in
another system moves into the PacNW through the early part of the
workweek. 75
&&
.AVIATION...
12Z TAFs... Variable conditions across all sites as RDM/BDN are
currently IFR/LIFR respectively due to low cigs. Conditions set to
degrade through the morning and afternoon as an incoming system
provides more incoming snowfall. This will drop conditions to IFR
to LIFR for all sites through the end of the period. 75
&&
.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
PDT 23 19 34 31 / 20 90 70 40
ALW 25 23 35 31 / 20 80 80 50
PSC 28 22 34 29 / 20 90 60 20
YKM 27 22 33 23 / 20 80 60 20
HRI 27 22 36 31 / 20 90 60 30
ELN 26 19 32 24 / 20 70 60 30
RDM 34 27 45 28 / 20 70 50 30
LGD 30 27 39 32 / 30 80 80 70
GCD 35 32 43 32 / 30 90 70 60
DLS 27 25 39 35 / 40 80 70 50
&&
.PDT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
OR...Winter Weather Advisory from 4 PM this afternoon to 4 PM PST
Tuesday for ORZ041-044-508-510.
Winter Storm Warning from 4 PM this afternoon to 4 PM PST
Tuesday for ORZ049-050-502-503-506-507-509.
WA...Winter Weather Advisory from 4 PM this afternoon to 4 PM PST
Tuesday for WAZ024-026>028-521.
Winter Storm Warning from 4 PM this afternoon to 4 PM PST
Tuesday for WAZ029-030-520.
&&
SHORT TERM...77
LONG TERM....75
AVIATION...75PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PENDLETON OR
549 AM PST SUN FEB 14 2021
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0905 AM SNOW RICHLAND 46.29N 119.29W
02/13/2021 M10.0 INCH BENTON WA PUBLIC
VIA SOCIAL MEDIA.
&&
MCThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
3 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
The High Ridge Snotel recorded 11 inches of new snow in a 24 hour period ending at 8:00am PST on Feb. 15th. The Milkshakes Snotel recorded 11 inches of new snow in a 24 hour period ending at 10:00am PST on Feb. 15th.
The NWS Pendleton Office recorded 8 inches of new snow at 10:00am on Feb. 15th and a snow depth of 15 inches. A Co-Op observer 10 miles SW of Pendleton, OR recorded 7.2 inches of snowfall in a 24 hour period ending at 8:15am PST on Feb. 15th and a snow depth of 14 inches.
Social Media report of 16 inches of snow in La Grande.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Oregon in 2021Every state in 2021This day in weather historyWarnings in Oregon, February 2021
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: 935180, 935185, 942306.