Wind speeds - Coastal and Willamette Valley (Portland, Salem: house, schools)

[Artful-Thang]

I just heard on the news that the Oregon coast (especially Cape Blanco) and Willamette Valley are in for high winds. So it seems the perfect time to ask a question that I've been wondering about for several months.

How often do both areas of Oregon get winds high enough to do significant damage? Anybody who has lived in So Cal and experienced Santa Ana winds...how do Oregon wind storms compare?

Here in Southern California we get Santa Ana winds at least a few times every year. Usually they aren't high enough to do more than break branches off trees, blow around tumbleweeds and cause fire problems. Occasionally we get winds high enough to sound worrisome when you're a property owner. Only twice in 40 years, though, have I been through a wind storm that caused damage to the house I was living in at the time. That was enough to cause some trepidation in facing REAL weather anywhere else in the country.

Thanks for your help.
Artful

By the way, I hope you all get through this current storm up there...hurricane force winds! Good luck!

[PNW-type-gal]

It's not even a once-a-year thing. The big storms they are comparing this one to are the 1962 and 1995 storms.

That said, there is usually a wind storm of sorts a couple times a winter. By "wind storm" I mean small branches down, pine cone nibs and needles everywhere, trash cans knocked over and the occasional power outage. More annoying in clean-up than actually damaging.

[tiffela74]

This is the first time ever that Oregon has gotten a storm they are catagorizing as "hurricane force winds" Im not in the storm, Im too far south, so I dont know if its anywhere near as bad as the 95storm...and the 62 was before me.
Like PNW says, mostly we just get the smallish windstorms. Also, it depends on where youre at along the coast. Tillamook clocked a gust at 105mph a couple hours ago, and the worst is still to come supposedly. Me on the other hand, I think the biggest gust we got was about 20mph. To tell you just how bad we have it, a local group was supposed to stop by today to pick up some cans to recycle. I left 2 plastic bags out on my deck w/aluminum cans in them. They didnt even get toppled over.
The northern coast gets much more strong winds then we do for some reason. I dont know why, but typically the low part of the storm starts in Florence, and covers up through the Southern Washington Coast. 99% of the storms and the big stuff misses us here in Coos Bay. Personally, Im bummed. I love a good storm and I get gyped every year. In 5yrs, the worst thats happened is we had our garabage can take off and end up by our hedge. And that was when we were right on the beach. sigh. The homeowner in me is relieved that we dont get any damaging weather...but the storm lovin kid in me is hoppin mad!!!!
btw, the longest we've ever lost power here has been one time we lost it for about 45min. Typically its much much less than that.
tiffany

[RockyMtnr]

We had roofs blown off a few weeks ago by "hurricane force" winds. Farther north, up the coast from here (Lincoln City). Those were forecast at 90mph, some were much stronger but the readers only gave us a 57mph rating.
Today's winds have taken some large branches down - but worse, took out the local cable channels - no football!! Big games for a lot of us today, too. I haven't seen the weather yet but I'd guess some gusts were only 70 or so. NBD. Clean-up tomorrow or next day as the winds are still forecasted for tomorrow. Rains have been intermittently drenching to nearly stopped. The storm a couple weeks ago had more rain and stronger winds ... so far. They had bigger winds than that since then - but inland, up in the Valley (Willamette Valley) by Silverton - closed down the Silver Falls State Park with trees down and such. Power out to tens of thousands all over Portland & Salem areas.

[Tesaje]

I thought there was a wild storm last winter that clocked 100 mp winds in Portland. By the way, hurricane force winds start at 75 mph sustained winds - gusts will be higher. 55mph qualifies as a severe thunderstorm, but without thunder, it isn't a thunderstorm. It can do a significant amount of damage. I looked at the PDX data - its not that windy up there today - 20-30 mph. Astoria maxed out with 35 sustained, gusts to 69 mph. Newport had 58 gusts 83mph, 63 gusts 93mph at Cape Meares. Looks like a good blow but not actually hurricane force unless it gets worse tonight.

[tiffela74]

here, this guy says it way better than me.....maybe thats why HE gets paid for this stuff...lol

"Bill Schneider, science and operations, NWS explains:

"The directive that gave offices the authority to issue a "Hurricane Force Wind Warning" in the marine forecast was issued May 21, 2002. In the five years since then, none has been issued along the West Coast of the lower 48 United States. The purpose here is to highlight the extreme nature of rare storms that may only occur once every 5 to 10 years.

These storms are "extra tropical cyclones", meaning they don't have the structure of a hurricane, and should not be confused with an actual hurricane (we won't give them names or anything like that). Storms like this approaching the West Coast are normally much larger in areal extent than a typical hurricane and have much broader impact zone where damaging winds can occur."

hopefully thats of some help...
tiffany

[Waterlily]

This morning I was out on the 1-5. It was windy with some sprinkels but not too bad. I mean I was walking around in it shoping. There was some boxes and leaves blowing around. I don't think people out there are used to having the winds blow so much.

We drove home to the coast here in the Bay area of Oregon. It was worse here. At least there was more rain here. There was an accident out on highway 42. I hope everyone is alright. It looked like the car was upside down. The streets get wet,and sometimes people don't slow down for the curves in the road.

[DBNN]

High wind warning through 10pm.

Coast could have up to 100+mph
40 Ft Seas, 4-8 in. rain
Flood warning

Willamette Valley
Winds 20 to 30 - Gust 50+
1-3 in. rain
Flood watch through Wed.

Cascades
65+mph
5-10" new snow
Avalanche Warning North

[tiffela74]

well, they closed schools down (that surprised me!!) but Im still off to work here in about 30min. sigh...my work...well, we shut down for NOTHING!! lol
no damage for us here, worst thing we had was my recycle bins ended up in my neighbors yard...

[tablemtn]

Gusts near Newport have kicked up to slightly over 90mph, according to my equipment. But those are not sustained. It's a strong storm, though.