RIDE-ALONG VIDEO INCLUDED | Find out why the epicenter of the storm dumped the most snow in Parkrose — right where the official weather forecasters work …
Into the evening on February 22, snow drifts down, covering the East Portland News Weather Deck.
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
Moist cold air, sneaking down the western coast of British Columbia this week, produced the second-heaviest one-day snowfall in Portland between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. on February 22.
By midday February 23, the storm moved south, and the clouds cleared away – but the east winds’ below-freezing temperatures kept all streets big and small, slick — with deep ice ruts which made driving treacherous.
Inside the NOAA National Weather Service building in Parkrose, meteorologists tally up the record amount of snowfall.
“Was this storm a surprise?” NWS Meteorologist David Bishop repeated our question. “In a way yes; but we were expecting some snowfall as early as last Sunday. These were ‘Winter Storm Watches” dispatched by 4 p.m. that day.
“So, yes, we were expecting snowfall for our County Warning Area (CWA), our ‘area of responsibility’ here in the Portland metro area.” But the official forecast said snow on the ground could reach half an inch. It wound up accumulating WAY more than that
Bright and early, the morning after the massive snowfall, SE Foster Road is still icy. And, a driver who ran into a snow bank along the street just abandoned the car.
It doesn’t take much of a hill to get kids excited to go sledding – albeit for a short ride.
Most all of the weather models used by the National Weather Service failed to “latch on” to the unusual circumstances that resulted in the heavy snowfall, Meterologist Bishop conceded. “Snow happens when ‘wet meets cold’. This storm’s low pressure center traveled down from British Columbia, Canada, hugged coast line as it slid down south, before stalling over the Long Beach Peninsula, up northwest of us, in Washington.”
Missing from their forecasting models was the low pressure center stalling out Long Beach as it did. “The storm centered there enabled constant streams of precipitation to go over the Portland metro area,” Bishop continued.
Along S.E. 122nd Avenue, a driver abandoned this late-model SUV – having slid crosswise in a traffic lane – after it got banged up in an accident, skidding to a stop against this pickup truck’s tire.
Near Raymond Park, in the Lents neighborhood, a large tree limb falls under the weight of snow – fortunately, in this case, not onto a vehicle or person.
East Portland gets hammered
Interestingly, the meteorologist pointed out, as late as 5 p.m. on February 22, there were reports of rain, but no snow, falling in Beaverton. “But, at the same time, here on the East side, we’d already seen two to three inches of snow.
“Outside of our office in Parkrose, by 10 p.m. we’d had a record snowfall of 10.8 inches; which makes Wednesday Portland’s second highest daily snowfall amount ever, within a calendar day,” Bishop remarked. The only snow event beating it happened on January 21, 1943 – 14.4 inches in a single day.
Come and ride along as we take a quick tour of outer East Portland just after the blizzard …
Throughout the coming weekend, Bishop said, it looked as if temperatures would stay below or around freezing. “There is the chance we might have another round of snow Saturday night into Sunday, as models are now showing more typical signs of the ‘spring snow pattern’ – a more recognizable pattern – tracking down out of the Gulf of Alaska.”
Asked for a long-term prognostication, Bishop responded, “We can’t say for certain that we won’t have another snowstorm this year – but the closer we are to March and April, the less likely it will be to happen.” However, don’t forget our April snowstorm last year!
© 2023 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™
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