The Willamette Valley saw sun, rain, hail and high gusts of wind within one afternoon on Monday.
Hail and wind came down in Portland after a sunny morning. I spoke with a @NWSPortland meteorologist about the sudden change in weather and intense wind gusts that caused downed trees and power outages in Oregon and Washington. See the story at @OPB. pic.twitter.com/RBevngIHNd
— Alex Hasenstab (@arhasenstab) April 5, 2022
While meteorologist Tyler Kranz with the National Weather Service says erratic weather is expected in Oregon, the wind was a little more unusual.
“It’s not uncommon to see showers and thunderstorms which often will produce your pea sized hail,” Kranz said. “But it’s more rare to see the 50 mile per hour wind gusts out of it, and that’s what makes today a little bit unique especially for the beginning of April.”
Gusty winds took down this approx 50ft pine tree on NW McKibbin RD. The tree landed on the house, severely damaging to the roof. No one was home at the time.
— Forest Grove Fire (@ForestGroveFire) April 4, 2022
CC: @NWSPortland pic.twitter.com/VMvqsyHQDG
On the coast, wind gusts were even higher, reaching up to 65 mph. The Willamette Valley into the interior lowlands of Southwest Washington saw wind gusts hit up to 50 mph, which Kranz said caused some tree damage and power outages.
Around 20,000 Portland General Electric customers were without power around the Portland and Salem metro areas Monday afternoon. Thousands of Pacific Power customers lost power in coastal towns, and near Albany and Corvallis.
Clark County, Washington, reported around 1,000 affected customers.
Kranz said two metrological phenomenon are at play: a strong low pressure front and wind sheer.
“Wind shear simply means the wind speed and or wind direction is changing with height,” he said.
Wind sheer can create the potential for severe weather. Mixed with the low pressure weather system, high speed winds at high altitudes are pushed down to the ground where it affects people, power and trees.
By Monday afternoon, the Portland Metro area saw blue skies again, but Kranz said the strange weather wasn’t over.
“We still have a whole lot of showers out there right now, and there’s even a couple of thunderstorms still out there right now,” he said.
Winds have been even stronger, up to 80 miles per hour in some cases, in the Cascade Mountains.
“That’s been creating white-out conditions due to a combination of falling snow with those high winds,” Kranz said.
The wind and rain is expected to end in Oregon and Washington by Tuesday afternoon.
“Skies should clear out, and we’ll actually get quite cold for this time of year,” Kranz said. “Tuesday night I’m expecting areas of frost with overnight lows ... or maybe even a little colder.
Warmer temperatures could arrive midweek.
“The roller coaster continues ...” he said.
Temperatures are expected to reach the mid-70s Thursday in the Willamette Valley and Southwest Washington.
