Under a progressive weather pattern, the eastern Columbia River Gorge was able to maintain hot afternoon temperatures during this period, resulting in exceeded heat risk thresholds on Aug. 24th and 25th.
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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.
Under a progressive weather pattern, the eastern Columbia River Gorge was able to maintain hot afternoon temperatures during this period, resulting in exceeded heat risk thresholds on Aug. 24th and 25th.
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 Aug 23, 7:59 PM PST, 4 hours 1 minute earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Pendleton OR 859 PM PDT Tue Aug 23 2022 .UPDATE...Upper low over NRN WA will drift a bit south on Wednesday and provide a slight chance for thunderstorms over mainly the WA Cascades and eastern Mountains. Currently the radar is clear of any precipitation returns and expect the remainder of the night to be dry. The current forecast is on track but did make some minor adjustments to cloud cover for the overnight period based on latest NBM guidance. 78 && .AVIATION...06Z TAFS...VFR conditions will prevail through the period with a few mid and high clouds. Isolated thunderstorms Wednesday afternoon and evening should stay over the higher terrain away from the terminals. winds will be 5 to 15 kt Wednesday but some gusts to around 20 kt at KPDT...KRDM and KBDN. 78 && .PREV DISCUSSION... /issued 516 PM PDT Tue Aug 23 2022/ SHORT TERM...Tonight through Thursday night...This afternoon, there are some cumulus buildups over the Wallowas, Elkhorns and the southern/central WA Cascade Mountains. These may spawn an isolated thunderstorm this afternoon or early evening, but the chances are low and confidence is not high for that to happen. Have removed mention of thunderstorms from the forecast this evening, which matches well with our neighbors. An upper low pressure system forming over northeast WA will not move much over the next 24 to 36 hours, but it will create more of a southwest flow. There will be just enough moisture and increasing instability for isolated afternoon and evening thunderstorms there on Wednesday afternoon/evening. Also, there could be isolated thunderstorms along the Cascade east slopes, especially in the higher reaches near the crest of both OR and WA on Wednesday. The amount of lightning from thunderstorms over the next day or two is not expected to be enough to warrant any fire weather highlights. Any storms that form could produce a tenth or two of an inch of precipitation, mainly under thunderstorm cell cores. Elsewhere across the forecast area, it is expected to be dry and just partly cloudy at most. The GFS/GEFS deterministic/ensemble forecast are in fairly good agreement, but are drier than the Canadian. The ECMWF looks much like the GFS/GEFS. There is little variance between these ensembles out to day 3. In the closer term, they all look very close to each other. The NBM 1D Viewer for key stations, such as KPDT, KPSC, KDLS, KLGD and KMEH all look to have very little variance between the NBM values and the amount of variance as shown by the percentile whiskers in the short term. On Thursday, the upper low over WA will open up and weaken as it moves off to the east and is eventually replaced by a northwest flow aloft by Friday morning. With that in mind, the latter part of the short term period looks to be dry, but still very warm. Winds look to be light through the short term forecast period, except for possible gusty winds near any thunderstorms, and possible locally breezy winds in the typical afternoon breezy locations, such as the eastern Columbia Gorge and the Kittitas Valley. 88 LONG TERM...Friday through Tuesday...Benign and dry conditions expected through the extended period. The low pressure system over Washington will move eastward and a weak upper level ridge will move over the area briefly bringing with is above normal temperatures for Friday. A brief shortwave disturbance moves over Saturday and Sunday followed again by another ridge Monday into Tuesday. The GFS/ECMWF long range models and the SREF short term model are in fairly good agreement about the low moving off to the east by Friday and a west to northwest flow will dominate by Friday night. Temperatures for Friday are still above normal for this time of the season and the EFI is showing that the above seasonal temperatures for Friday as a 0.89. Temperatures for Friday will range from the high 80s to high 90s across the region with some 70s in the higher elevations. By Saturday the GFS/ECMWF models begin to differ mostly with whether or not the next incoming system is a trough followed by a ridge as the ECMWF suggests, or a closed low followed by a ridge as the GFS suggests. The WPC multi-model ensemble is showing that a disturbance is expected Saturday which lies in agreement with what the models are showing. Despite these disagreements on whether or not it is a trough or a closed low, conditions are expected to remain dry while temperatures will be a bit more seasonable. Highs on Saturday will be around 10 degrees cooler than Friday with mainly low 70s in the higher terrain and low 80s to upper 80s elsewhere. This trend continues through Sunday with dry conditions and temperatures not much different than Saturday. Monday the GFS/ECMWF are in better agreement about a ridge following the weekend disturbance. The WPC ensemble clusters are mostly in disagreement on strength and location of the ridge axis, but are showing the ridge moving in over the region. Dry conditions are expected and increasing temperatures Monday into Tuesday. Highs are expected to be in the high 70s to lower 80s for the higher terrain and upper 80s and 90s elsewhere and increasing again on Tuesday. Bennese/90 && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... PDT 60 93 60 93 / 0 10 10 0 ALW 63 95 63 94 / 0 10 10 10 PSC 67 97 67 97 / 0 10 10 0 YKM 63 95 62 96 / 0 10 10 10 HRI 63 98 64 97 / 0 0 0 0 ELN 62 94 62 95 / 10 20 20 10 RDM 54 91 58 92 / 0 0 0 0 LGD 59 91 58 89 / 10 20 20 10 GCD 58 94 58 93 / 0 10 10 10 DLS 67 99 70 99 / 0 0 0 0 && .PDT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... OR...None. WA...None. && SHORT TERM...78 LONG TERM....90 AVIATION...78
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 excessive heat. Local standard time, as filed.
Calculated heat risk values at the Dallesport Airport GHCN site recorded consecutive days between Aug. 24th and 25th of temperatures that met or exceeded excessive heat warning criteria.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Washington in 2022Every state in 2022This day in weather historyWarnings in Washington, August 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: 1053515.