A strong upper level low coupled with cold front at the surface brought numerous wind and winter weather impacts across portions of eastern Washington and eastern Oregon. Moisture rounding the upper low produced heavy snow across portions of the east slopes of the Cascades, while the cold front produced strong winds in the lower elevations during the day on April 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.
A strong upper level low coupled with cold front at the surface brought numerous wind and winter weather impacts across portions of eastern Washington and eastern Oregon. Moisture rounding the upper low produced heavy snow across portions of the east slopes of the Cascades, while the cold front produced strong winds in the lower elevations during the day on April 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 Apr 3, 6:17 PM PST, 43 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Pendleton OR
717 PM PDT Sun Apr 3 2022
.UPDATE...Latest water vapor imagery is showing a powerful upper
level low moving sewd off the British Columbia Coast. South of the
low is a strong jet stream and long fetch of moisture with rain
beginning to spread into western Oregon and Washington. Heavy snow
is expected tonight and Monday along the Cascade crest and a
strong cold front will cross the region Monday morning bringing
strong to locally damaging winds to the region. Numerous wind and
winter highlights are in effect for the wind and snow and will
hold off on making any changes to them for this evening. There are
some conflicting signals in the wind guidance for the high wind
potential with the HRRR and HREF being less bullish than the NBM
4.1. Overall the trend has been downward in the forecast max
gusts...but it still looks like widespread 45-55 mph gusts with a
few 65 mph gusts seem likely mainly from 18Z until 06-08z Monday
evening. Did adjust the wind grids a bit this evening and lowered
the POPS Monday afternoon over the lowlands after the frontal
passage...otherwise the rest of the forecast looked good this
evening. 78
&&
.PREV DISCUSSION... /issued 411 PM PDT Sun Apr 3 2022/
SHORT TERM...Tonight through Tuesday Night...A powerful upper low
and trough is moving into the Pacific Northwest and will bring very
active weather to the area late tonight through Monday night. The
upper low is currently off of British Columbia and will ashore
tomorrow. As it does so, a front with a few embedded disturbances
and a weak atmospheric river will bring substantial amounts of rain
and higher elevation snow into the Cascades and lesser amounts to
the eastern mountains. Snow amounts of up to 2 feet near the Cascade
crest are still forecast through tomorrow night and this will
significantly impact travel across mountain highways. The eastern
mountains look to get much less snow with 3 to 7 inches above 4500
feet and lesser amounts below that elevation. Central Oregon will
get up to an inch of snow with a quarter to a third of an inch of
rain. Other lower elevation area will get less than a quarter inch
with the Columbia Basin less than a tenth of an inch. The system is
also being fed by a strong 170 knot jet at 300 mb and 50-60 knots at
850 mb. It is expected that these 850 mb winds will mix down to the
surface at times on Monday, especially in the afternoon and have
issued a mix of high end wind advisories and high wind warnings for
all lower elevation locations. winds of 25 to 35 mph with gusts to
55 mph will be widespread and the Columbia Basin, Blue Mountain
Foothills, Simcoe Highlands and Yakima Valley reaching 30 to 45 mph
with gusts to 65 mph. The strongest winds are expected along the
base of the Blue Mountains and on higher terrain like the Horse
Heaven Hills and Simcoe Mountains. Winds will decrease Monday night.
Tuesday will see the system departing in the morning and a ridge
will build over the area. A chance of lingering light snow showers
will continue in the mountains Tuesday with the lower elevations
dry. Tuesday night will be dry. Pressure gradients will remain tight
Tuesday afternoon and 15 to 25 mph winds are expected in the
Columbia Basin in the afternoon and early evening. Temperatures
Monday will be in the 50s with 40s in the mountains. Tuesday will be
a degree or two cooler. Perry/83
LONG TERM...Wednesday through Sunday...Ensemble and deterministic
guidance are in excellent agreement that an upper-level ridge will
build into the Pacific Northwest on Wednesday. Mostly clear skies
and lighter winds compared to Tuesday will aid radiational cooling
so chilly morning lows in the lower 20s to lower 30s will be
possible, with the coldest temperatures in high mountain valleys and
central Oregon. The ridge will continue to amplify through Thursday
with warm, dry weather forecast. Slight differences in ridge
strength are apparent when examining ensemble means as well as 12Z
deterministic runs. Currently, the ECMWF is advertising the
strongest ridge, with correspondingly higher afternoon temperatures
across the forecast area when compared to other guidance. EFI values
in the 0.5-0.9 range suggest the potential for warm highs Thursday
and Friday compared to model climatology, and widespread high
temperatures in the upper 60s to upper 70s are forecast by the NBM
for Thursday and Friday for our major population centers.
Guidance starts to diverge somewhat by Friday afternoon regarding
details of the pattern, though ensembles and deterministic runs all
show some flavor of a shortwave and weakening frontal boundary
arriving Friday afternoon into Saturday morning, and model agreement
is certainly better than it was this time yesterday. Cluster
analysis reveals a troughing patter is favored by ensembles through
the weekend, though differences in strength, track, and timing are
evident. This is mirrored in deterministic runs with the ECMWF
currently favoring the wettest pattern. As a result of model
uncertainty, have opted to stick with a slight chance of rain and
snow for the mountains Friday through Sunday, though confidence is
low in details at this point. Plunkett/86
AVIATION...00Z TAFs...CIGS will lower and thicken tonight as a
storm system approaches. Areas of rain and high mountain snow will
develop with the bulk of it over the mountains and Cascade east
slopes though some rain possible at the terminal sites. MVFR CIGS
will be possible in rain which will be mostly after midnight through
Monday morning. Winds will be the primary concern with widespread SW-
W winds of 25-40 kt beginning around sunrise Monday and peaking
Monday afternoon. Some gusts of 50+ kt are likely. 78
&&
.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
PDT 57 44 56 36 / 10 60 30 30
ALW 59 46 57 37 / 0 70 50 30
PSC 62 49 60 40 / 0 50 20 0
YKM 61 40 54 33 / 10 70 60 30
HRI 62 47 59 36 / 10 40 20 10
ELN 56 39 49 33 / 10 70 70 40
RDM 57 40 52 26 / 10 50 70 40
LGD 58 39 51 31 / 10 60 70 60
GCD 55 38 52 29 / 0 50 30 40
DLS 61 48 55 41 / 10 90 90 70
&&
.PDT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
OR...Winter Storm Warning until 5 AM PDT Tuesday for ORZ509.
Wind Advisory from 8 AM to 11 PM PDT Monday for ORZ041-505-510-
511.
High Wind Warning from 8 AM to 11 PM PDT Monday for ORZ044-507-
508.
WA...Wind Advisory from 8 AM to 11 PM PDT Monday for WAZ024-026.
High Wind Warning from 8 AM to 11 PM PDT Monday for WAZ027>029-
521.
Winter Storm Warning until 8 AM PDT Tuesday for WAZ520.
&&
SHORT TERM...78
LONG TERM....86
AVIATION...78The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
3 high wind, 1 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
The Clear Lake SNOTEL 17 miles west northwest of Pine Grove measured 8 inches of new snow in the a 24 hour period ending at 0100 PDT. The Hogg Pass SNOTEL measured 9 inches of new snow in a 24 hour period ending at 0700 PDT.
The ASOS station KHRI 1 mile east of Hermiston, OR measured a wind gust of 61 mph at 1603 PDT. The Mesonet station CW2444 Echo 8 miles west southwest of Echo, OR measured a wind gust of 59 mph at 1645 PDT.
The mesonet station FW6922 Hood River 7 miles northeast of Dufur, OR measured a wind gust of 59 mph at 1245 PDT. The RAWS station North Pole Ridge 11 miles east of Shaniko, OR measured a wind gust of 59 mph at 1148 PDT.
THe mesonet station XMRY 5 miles west southwest of Rufus, OR measured a wind gust of 62 mph at 1245 PDT. The mesonet station FW6920 Hood River 2 miles southeast of the Dalles, OR measured a wind gust of 60 mph at 1245 PDT.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Oregon in 2022Every state in 2022This day in weather historyWarnings in Oregon, April 2022
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: 1024945, 1024956, 1024957, 1024960.