Remembering the great Columbus Day Windstorm of 1962
Scott Sistek 1 min read
Damage to the Van Buren Street Bridge in Corvallis, (Courtesy Oregon State Univ. Libraries.)
The weather was active Sunday but it was nothing compared to what was happening 63 years ago when the great Columbus Day storm slammed into the Pacific Northwest with the fury equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane.
Still considered the greatest storm in our recorded history, the storm left 47 dead and 317 more injured as wind gusts exceeded 100 mph across wide swaths of western Oregon with damaging gusts reaching into Western Washington too.
The storm formed from the remnants of typhoon Freda and re-energized off the California coast into a super storm. Noted local meteorologist and windstorm researcher Dr. Wolf Read said the storm’s path and development had never been recorded before in the region’s history.
Some of the peak gusts in Oregon hit 145 mph at Cape Blanco, 138 mph in Newport, 127 mph in Corvallis, 116 mph in Portland and 96 mph in Astoria.
The wind was so dangerous in Corvallis the official observers abandoned their station:
Note on the log it says “instruments demolished”!
Wind gusts weren’t quite as extreme around Seattle but still reached 100 mph in Renton and 81 mph in Everett.
Ben Jurkovich of Washington Weather Chasers put together a historical tribute to the storm to commemorate the anniversary and I’m eager to share it here.
The region has certainly had significant wind storm since then, such as the 1993 Inauguration Day storm and the 2006 Hannukah Eve storm, but nothing still compares to the destruction left from Oct. 12, 1962.