A series of upper low pressure systems and a surface cold front passage resulted in a several day period of heavy snow accumulations across the Cascades and northern Blue mountains.
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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.
A series of upper low pressure systems and a surface cold front passage resulted in a several day period of heavy snow accumulations across the Cascades and northern Blue mountains.
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 Jan 6, 3:40 AM PST, 20 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Pendleton OR 340 AM PST Tue Jan 6 2026 Updated Aviation Discussion .DISCUSSION...Dry conditions with high cloud decks will continue through the night. Winds are slightly breezier compared to last night, which is preventing much of the fog that developed yesterday from occurring again tonight. Weather will continue to be benign going through the early morning hours until an incoming shortwave begins the anticipated winter storm associated with the Winter Storms Warning across the mountain regions that is expected to last through Thursday evening. Moderate to heavy mountain snow will bring several feet of snow across portions of the Cascade crests and parts of the Northern Blue Mountains. An approaching cold front will push through the area between the mid to late morning hours of Wednesday that will jolt snow rates up to 1 to 4 inches per hour across portions of the mountain regions (75 to 85 percent chance). The cold front will also bring Thursdays low temperatures below freezing through the vast majority of the region along with moderate wind gradients. Although not strong enough to warrant wind advisories, breezy to locally windy conditions will develop Wednesday into Thursday morning, with gusts up to 30 to 40 mph (60 to 80 percent chance). Strong wind conditions will be combined with the moderate to heavy snow storm across the mountain regions, causing low visibility and harsh winter driving conditions (especially along the passes going through the Cascades and Northern Blue Mountains). Snow amounts will be very excessive, with even the low end amount with a 90 percent chance of 21 inches or more in Snoqualmie Pass through Thursday evening, 16 inches or more in Santiam Pass, and 5 inches in Tollgate. On the high end side, with a 10 percent chance of Snoqualmie Pass getting 49 inches or more through Thursday evening, 53 inches in Santiam Pass, and 28 inches in Tollgate. Currently, our forecast calls for between 12 and 30 inches in the Northern Blue Mountains, between 16 and 35 inches for the East Slopes of the Oregon Cascades/Upper Slopes of the Eastern Washington Cascades Crest, and 7 to 12 inches for the Lower Slopes of the Eastern Washington Cascades Crest. With the wind threat mentioned earlier, winds will be gusting as high as 45 mph. Additional impacts in Central Oregon (that includes Bend and Redmond) is possible with the cold front on Wednesday bringing up to an inch of snow throughout the area, although confidence is low currently (10 to 20 percent) that amounts will surpass advisory levels at this time, but drivers on Highway 97 should prepare for winter weather conditions on the road as we head through the mid week. .AVIATION...12Z TAFS...Mostly VFR conditions to prevail through the period. A weather system offshore will continue to increase cloud cover across all sites, with CIGs expected to steadily drop to around 4kft to 7kft AGL through the period. Only exception will be site DLS, where CIGs are expected to drop to between 1kft to 3kft AGL with the arrival of precipitation after 23Z. Otherwise, lowest CIGs will coincide with the onset of rain at sites DLS/RDM/BDN/YKM/ALW. Winds of 12-20kts with gusts 20-30kts will develop at most sites between 18Z-20Z and persist through the evening hours, except at site DLS where winds will increase around 9Z. Lawhorn/82 && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... PDT 49 34 47 30 / 50 60 20 50 ALW 48 35 46 32 / 80 80 30 60 PSC 48 34 48 31 / 40 30 10 20 YKM 43 28 44 26 / 40 50 30 10 HRI 49 34 48 32 / 30 40 10 30 ELN 38 25 38 24 / 60 60 50 30 RDM 46 26 42 24 / 10 60 50 50 LGD 43 31 40 27 / 80 90 40 70 GCD 44 31 40 26 / 60 80 40 60 DLS 45 35 45 34 / 60 90 70 70 && .PDT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... OR...Winter Storm Warning until 4 PM PST Thursday for ORZ502-509. WA...Winter Storm Warning until 4 PM PST Thursday for WAZ030-522-523. && SHORT TERM...95 LONG TERM....95 AVIATION...82
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
The Milk Shakes SNOTEL measured 14 inches of storm total snow at 0400 PST on the 8th. the High Ridge SNOTEL measured 13 inches of storm total snow at 0400 PST on the 8th.
The Hogg Pass SNOTEL reported 10 inches of new snow in a 13 hour period ending at 0500 PST on the 7th.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Oregon in 2026Every state in 2026This day in weather historyWarnings in Oregon, January 2026
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: 1314550, 1314551.