A History Of Northwest Windstorms
By Cliff Mass
Although the Pacific Northwest escapes the threat of hurricanes, the region is no stranger to strong, damaging winds. Each winter season, several Pacific low pressure centers make landfall upon the Northwest and British Columbia coasts, resulting in winds strong enough to produce power failures and modest damage west of the Cascades.
Less frequently, perhaps two or three times a decade, windstorms of considerably greater magnitude occur, with winds gusting to 70 mph or more, massive power failures affecting hundreds of thousands of homes, and damage reaching the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.
A history of Northwest windstorms was presented in November on the University of Washington campus by UW atmospheric sciences professor Cliff Mass. To read a summary of his lecture, click here (PDF).
|