An occluded front coupled with a moist southwest flow aloft lead to heavy snow developing across portions of eastern and central Oregon as well as across portions of south central Washington.
Every event with a place to put it; 2 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.
An occluded front coupled with a moist southwest flow aloft lead to heavy snow developing across portions of eastern and central Oregon as well as across portions of south central 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 12, 10:28 PM PST, 2 hours 32 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Pendleton OR
1028 PM PST Wed Feb 12 2025
.EVENING UPDATE...Increased sustained winds to breezy (15-25mph)
over the Blues as gusty winds (>30 mph) develop at the Grande Ronde
Valley and I-84 corridor tonight into tomorrow. This is due to the
tightening surface gradients as the system arrives tomorrow morning.
Based on latest observations and guidance, temperatures were lowered
to the teens and single digits tonight through tomorrow morning.
Otherwise, no further adjustments to the forecast at this time.
Feaster/97
&&
.PREV DISCUSSION... /issued 937 PM PST Wed Feb 12 2025/
Updated for Aviation...
AVIATION...
06Z TAFS...VFR conditions prevail at all TAF sites to start the
period. However, conditions will deteriorate from southwest to
northeast as a weather system will bring SN to the region. Expect
BDN and RDM to drop to MVFR and possibly IFR by daybreak, with DLS
later in the morning. Further east, PSC, PDT and ALW will start to
experience SN by late morning/early afternoon and the MVFR/IFR
conditions. Winds are expected to be 10 kts or less through the
period.
PREV DISCUSSION... /issued 320 PM PST Wed Feb 12 2025/
SHORT TERM...Wednesday through Friday Night...
1) Winter Weather Advisories Thursday-Friday in many areas in Oregon
2) High Wind Warning in foothills and Southern Grand Ronde Valley
Thursday
3) Warming trend going into the weekend
Satellite imagery depicts clear conditions over the region as a dry
air mass is situated over the PacNW. A trough extending over the
Four Corners is allowing northern flow to continue to bring the
cool, dry air mass into Thursday. Lows overnight Wednesday into
Thursday will continue to stay in the single digits for most of the
Columbia Basin and as low as -15 degrees in some places of the
higher elevations located in the Blue Mountains. These low
temperatures will keep our already active Cold Air Advisory in the
mountains, Foothills of the Blues, and Central OR valid until 7AM on
Thursday. A transient ridge will set in overnight Wednesday into
Thursday after the trough continues to move towards the central
plains. Winds aloft will shift more westward, putting a break into
the cold-dry airmass pumping into the region and allow Lows/Highs to
trend warmer towards the weekend.
A closed-off low offshore of OR/WA moves onshore into the region
Thursday morning headed into Thursday afternoon. A flow shift to
SW/WSW aloft at 500mb will be accompanied with increased moisture
advection and precip chances. Precip will emerge from south to
north, beginning in Deschutes County in early morning Thursday.
Light snow will then roll through the Southern Blue Mountains
shortly after, and eventually the entire CWA by late afternoon.
Current thinking for Thursday morning to Friday morning is high
confidence (70-90%) in 2-4" across the lower elevations including
Grande Ronde Valley and the John Day Basin, 3-7" across the Ochoco
and John Day Highlands, and 5-10" across the east slopes of the OR
Cascades and Blue Mountains. Given that confidence is good (70-90%)
that snow amounts will exceed minimum Winter Weather Advisory
criteria, advisories have been issued for the aforementioned.
Additionally, the pressure gradient tool gives us high confidence
(70-90%) owing to a >8 MB difference between BKE and MEH between 13Z
and 17Z Thursday seen across guidance. This supports increasing
winds to 35-45 mph in the Southern Grand Ronde Thursday morning into
the late afternoon, with gusts as high as 45-65 mph. The foothills
of the Southern Blue Mountains will see similar windy conditions at
35-45 mph, with gusts up to 50-60 mph. A High Wind Warning is issued
for these areas until 10PM Thursday. The combination of falling and
blowing snow with these winds will promote hazardous driving
conditions, including low visibilities/whiteout conditions at times,
more likely than not across the southern Grande Valley interstate
corridor.
Light snow will continue to fall through the Columbia Basin, with no
more than an additional half inch expected on Friday. OR Cascades
and Blue Mountains will continue to support Winter Weather
Advisories through Friday. Latest NBM guidance Friday morning-
Saturday morning show 40-60% of exceeding 5 inches in Northern Blue
Mountains and >90% chance in east slopes of OR Cascades.
LONG TERM...Saturday through Wednesday...
Synoptic Overview: Ensemble NWP is in good, though not excellent,
agreement regarding the 500-mb pattern through Tuesday. Guidance
depicts a transient ridge overhead Saturday AM, resulting in mostly
dry weather outside of the mountains where lingering light snow is
forecast beneath a northwesterly flow aloft. By Saturday PM, active
weather returns with southwesterly flow aloft ushering in a warmer
air mass and rising snow levels. Another shortwave then likely (80%
confidence) rounds the parent upper low and swings through Sunday
through Monday, switching flow aloft to westerly then northwesterly.
Drier weather (aside from linger precipitation for the mountains)
returns Tuesday as another ridge of high pressure likely (80%
confidence) moves over the PacNW. Wednesday, ensemble solutions
begin to diverge with roughly 65% showing some flavor of
southwesterly flow aloft and offshore troughing with wet weather,
while the remaining 35% show a drier scenario.
Snow chances: NBM probabilities suggest a low chance (15% or less)
of advisory-level snowfall (2-3") across the lowlands during the 48-
hr period ending Monday morning. The Cascades and northern Blues
have a significantly higher chance of advisory-level (5-6") snow (50-
80%). Plunkett/86
AVIATION...00Z TAFs...VFR conditions will likely persist (90%
chance or greater) for all sites through the remainder of today and
into tonight. An incoming weather system will facilitate increasing
mid/high cloud cover late afternoon through the night. Snow will
spread from southwest to northeast beginning around 12Z Thursday
(BDN/RDM) reaching DLS/PDT/ALW/PSC/YKM by 16-20Z. MVFR or lower
CIGs/VSBYs are likely (80-90% chance) at BDN/RDM/DLS by early
Thursday morning, with sub-VFR CIGs/VSBYs becoming more likely than
not (>50% chance) for other sites by 18-20Z Thursday.
Sustained winds of 12 kts or less are forecast for all sites, though
gusts to 15-25 kts are likely (80% chance) at DLS this afternoon and
evening. Gusts of greater than 15 kts are unlikely (<20% chance) for
all other sites. Plunkett/86
&&
.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
PDT 7 24 18 34 / 0 80 60 90
ALW 8 25 21 32 / 0 80 80 90
PSC 9 28 21 35 / 0 80 60 60
YKM 7 25 19 35 / 0 60 40 10
HRI 9 26 18 35 / 0 80 60 70
ELN 7 24 19 36 / 0 60 30 20
RDM 6 31 15 40 / 10 90 60 30
LGD -1 29 23 37 / 0 80 70 90
GCD 6 33 25 40 / 0 90 70 80
DLS 23 27 22 40 / 0 80 60 50
&&
.PDT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
OR...Winter Weather Advisory from 7 AM Thursday to 10 AM PST Friday
for ORZ041.
Winter Weather Advisory from 7 AM Thursday to 4 PM PST Friday
for ORZ044-508.
Cold Weather Advisory until 7 AM PST Thursday for ORZ049-050-502-
503-506-509-511.
High Wind Warning until 10 PM PST Thursday for ORZ049-507.
Winter Weather Advisory from 7 AM Thursday to 10 PM PST Friday
for ORZ049-502-503-507.
Winter Weather Advisory from 4 AM Thursday to 4 PM PST Friday
for ORZ505-506.
Winter Weather Advisory until 4 PM PST Friday for ORZ509.
Winter Weather Advisory from 4 AM Thursday to 10 AM PST Friday
for ORZ510.
Winter Weather Advisory until 10 AM PST Friday for ORZ511.
WA...Winter Weather Advisory from 7 AM Thursday to 10 AM PST Friday
for WAZ024.
Cold Weather Advisory until 7 AM PST Thursday for WAZ030-522.
Winter Weather Advisory from 7 AM Thursday to 10 PM PST Friday
for WAZ029-030.
&&
EVENING UPDATE...97
SHORT TERM...82
LONG TERM....86
AVIATION...77The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
The Cocorahs observer OR-JF-13 2 miles south of Madras reported 4 inches of new snow in a 24 hour period ending at 0700 February 14th. The Cocorahs observer OR-DS-69 7 miles west of Redmond reported 3.8 inches of new snow in a 24 hour period ending at 0700 on February 14th.
A public report from Athena reported 4 inches of new snow had fallen at 0900 February 14th. The Pendleton WFO reported 6 inches of new snow at 1000 on February 14th.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Oregon in 2025Every state in 2025This day in weather historyWarnings in Oregon, February 2025
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: 1239545, 1239547.