Great Coastal Gale of 2007
The Great Coastal Storm of 2007 was a series of three powerful Pacific storms that affected the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia between December 1, 2007 and December 4, 2007. The storms on December 2 and 3 produced an extremely long-duration wind event with hurricane-force wind gusts of up to at Holy Cross, Washington on the Washington Coast, and at Bay City, Oregon on the Oregon Coast. The storm also brought heavy rains and produced widespread record flooding throughout the region, and was blamed for at least 18 deaths. Meteorologists at the Oregon Climate Service named the storm in January 2008, drawing from the Great Gale of 1880, a similar powerful storm that affected the region in 1880. Meteorological synopsis On November 29, 2007, a strong low pressure system, fed by the remnants of Typhoon Mitag and Typhoon Hagibis, formed in the central Pacific Ocean, and was carried via the Pineapple Express to the Pacific Northwest. Anticipating the storm, the National Weather Service issued its first-ever hurricane-force wind warning for the Oregon coast. The first of the three separate storms arrived on December 1, accompanying frigid temperatures across much of Washington which resulted in many areas across Washington receiving up to of snowfall. On December 2, the second storm, which provided considerable amounts of rainfall, yet still packing cold temperatures, dumped even more snow across parts of the state, resulting in several districts in Mason County and Kitsap County to close due to heavy snow. At around 5:30 in the afternoon, the snow began to cease, and turned into a light rain across Washington. On December 2, the second storm made landfall on the Oregon coast, with the hurricane-force winds that were forecast, along with tropically-affected temperatures. In as little as two hours, temperatures across the region jumped from near freezing to above 60 degrees in areas just as the first bands of the heavy rain were hitting. The storm moved northward through Oregon and Washington with strong rain (including in 24 hours in Bremerton, Washington.) accompanying the wind. The rapid rise in temperature caused the recent snow to melt quickly, indicating that record flooding was imminent across much of the region. Flood warnings across five rivers in Washington were issued late in the afternoon, well before any started to rise (by the 11 p.m. nightly newscasts in Seattle, the flood warnings were updated to include every mountain-fed river in the state). The Skokomish River was the first to hit flood stage at 2:45 a.m. on December 3, as drenching rains were still pelting the area. Other rivers in the state began to flood their banks at around the same time, and images of widespread flooding began showing up on the morning newscasts of every Seattle and Portland TV station. By the morning of December 3, extreme wind speeds by the third and most powerful Pacific storm began hitting much of the WA and OR coasts with widespread peak gusts of at