An upper level trough with abundant moisture brought periodic heavy snow showers across the region, with heaviest snow amounts falling the northern Blue Mountains of Oregon and Washington.
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The episode as NWS PDT wrote it up.
An upper level trough with abundant moisture brought periodic heavy snow showers across the region, with heaviest snow amounts falling the northern Blue Mountains of Oregon and Washington.
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 19, 9:38 PM PST, 22 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Pendleton OR
938 PM PST Sat Feb 19 2022
Updated aviation discussion
.AVIATION...06Z TAFS...Overall VFR conditions are expected next 24
hours at TAF sites but with some ceilings BKN-OVC040-080 and
localized showers impacting sites mainly near the mountains. SW to W
winds 7-15kts overnight then 10-20 on Sunday with gusts around 30
kts before decreasing in the evening.
.UPDATE...The initial cold front pass passed over the area and only
produced some precipitation into the Washington Cascades. A second
cold front is coming into NW Washington and will push into the
forecast area overnight under a strong westerly flow. This flow will
will bring more snow to the Washington Cascades mainly along the
crest tonight and move southward into the Oregon Cascades. It will
also begin to produce snow over the Blue Mountains around midnight.
the strong westerly flow will produce downsloping conditions along
the east slopes of the Cascades extending out into the Columbia
Basin so not expecting much precipitation in these areas.
.SHORT TERM...Tonight through Monday...Leading edge of the cold
front is currently passing over the forecast area this early
afternoon, with breezy west winds having developed across much of
northeast OR and southeast WA. Winds will continue through the
evening as the cold front continues to exit the region.
Tonight through Sunday, an upper level trough currently swinging
south across northern BC will continue to push south towards the
PacNW, with flow aloft turning westerly as a result. A low level
wind jet associated with this system will once again develop
across the forecast area, with breezy westerly winds (not as
strong as today) impacting the lower elevations. In the WA
Cascades, as flow turns westerly and upper level winds increase, a
convergence zone is expected to develop and bring moderate to
heavy snow showers along the west slopes of the Cascades near
Stevens Pass and north of Snoqualmie pass this evening through
tomorrow, where winter weather highlights have been issued. For
the east slopes of the Cascades, 8 to 9 inches of snow
accumulations this evening through late Sunday morning are
anticipated at the pass level, though a sharp snow accumulation
gradient is expected further east with 2 to 3 inches around
Roslyn, WA and about an inch around Cle Elum, WA. After midnight,
the moderate to heavy snow showers are expected to reach the
northern Blues, and will continue through Sunday into early Monday
morning. Total snow accumulations above 3,500ft in the northern
Blues will be 9 to 14 inches through early Monday morning.
By late Sunday into early Monday morning, the main trough axis
will pass south of the forecast area into southeast OR and across
central and northern ID, with flow aloft turning to the north.
This will effectively turn-off any moisture support in the flow
aloft, however a weak to moderate plume of lingering moisture will
still flow into the region through Monday. Across the Cascades and
the northeast mountains, light snow showers will persist through
Monday evening, with an additional 2 to 5 inches of snow
accumulations through early Tuesday morning in these areas. Snow
levels and temperatures will also be low enough across the lower
elevations for light snow to be possible early Monday into the
early afternoon. Lower elevation areas below 3,000ft, including
Bend/Redmond area, will see a chance of 0.5 to 1.5 inches of snow
through the first half of Monday, with locally 2 to 2.5 inches
possible in and around central OR. By late Monday night,
precipitation is expected to diminish across the lower elevations
as a dry arctic airmass begins to advect into the region. Monday
afternoon, a quick moving shortwave will round the upper trough
and continue to deepen the trough further south into the Great
Basin. As the shortwave moves across the forecast area, breezy
north to northeast winds will develop across the Columbia Basin
into central OR, and will continue overnight into Tuesday. With
the surface winds combined with the deepening trough over the
western CONUS, a cold arctic airmass will begin to spill into the
intermountain west, leading to very unseasonably cold temperatures
into the beginning of the extended period.
.LONG TERM...Tuesday through Saturday. A significant weather
system is forecast to impact the pacnw with much colder
temperatures by Tuesday morning. A low pressure system is expected
to track across the region Tuesday continuing to usher in much
colder temperatures to WA/OR on northerly winds. Afternoon
temperatures Tuesday afternoon are forecast to struggle to reach
the freezing mark. By Wednesday and Thursday mornings low
temperatures are expected to dip into the teens and single digits.
Even colder temperatures are likely in the area mountains
dropping to below zero Wednesday morning. Portions of Central
Oregon could also experience below zero temps. The EOF
variance/patterns differ somewhat with the timing and strength of
this weather system and the confidence improves even more into
middle and end of the week. By Friday temperatures rebound into
Saturday but still remain below normal.
Moisture is expected to accompany the weather system on Tuesday with
mostly mountain snow showers persisting. Meanwhile much colder and
drier conditions are forecast by midweek and continuing into Friday.
By the weekend the models differ as another weather system
approaches the two state area by Saturday with the gfs the more
aggressive model increasing pcpn chances mainly along the WA/OR
cascades.
&&
.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
PDT 35 47 30 39 / 20 50 30 60
ALW 37 51 32 41 / 30 60 40 60
PSC 39 55 33 45 / 10 20 20 30
YKM 29 54 27 41 / 10 10 10 30
HRI 37 53 32 45 / 10 30 20 50
ELN 30 44 26 35 / 20 10 10 30
RDM 26 44 22 40 / 10 30 20 60
LGD 30 39 26 34 / 40 70 50 70
GCD 29 41 23 37 / 10 70 30 70
DLS 37 52 35 45 / 40 40 30 60
&&
.PDT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
OR...Winter Weather Advisory from 10 PM this evening to 4 AM PST
Monday for ORZ503-509.
Winter Storm Warning from 10 PM this evening to 4 AM PST Monday
for ORZ502.
WA...Winter Storm Warning from 10 PM this evening to 4 AM PST Monday
for WAZ030.
Winter Weather Advisory until 1 PM PST Sunday for WAZ520.
&&
SHORT TERM...82
LONG TERM....97
AVIATION...97The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
The Ski Bluewood resort in Columbia county Washington measured 15 inches of new snow over a 48 hour period ending at 0510am PST on Feb. 21st.
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, February 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: 1012240.