page_title: Columbus Day Storm of 1962
section_title: Wind speed highlights
hierarchical_section_title: Columbus Day Storm of 1962 / Wind speed highlights
caption_attribution_description: English: I created this image, which shows storm peak-gusts at many official stations in CA, OR and WA during the 1962 Columbus Day storm
context_page_description: The Columbus Day Storm of 1962 was a Pacific Northwest windstorm that struck the West Coast of Canada and the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States on October 12, 1962. It is considered the benchmark of extratropical wind storms. The storm ranks among the most intense to strike the region since at least 1948, likely since the January 9, 1880 "Great Gale" and snowstorm. The storm is a contender for the title of most powerful extratropical cyclone recorded in the U.S. in the 20th century; with respect to wind velocity, it is unmatched by the March 1993 "Storm of the Century" and the "1991 Halloween Nor'easter". The system brought strong winds to the Pacific Northwest and southwest Canada, and was linked to 46 fatalities in the northwest and Northern California resulting from heavy rains and mudslides.
context_section_description: The peak winds were felt as the storm passed close by on October 12.  At Oregon's Cape Blanco, an anemometer that lost one of its cups registered wind gusts in excess of 145 miles per hour (233 kilometers per hour); some reports put the peak velocity at 179 mph (288 km/h).  The north Oregon coast Mt. Hebo radar station reported winds of 170 mph (270 km/h).
  At the Naselle Radar Station in the Willapa Hills of southwest Washington, a wind gust of 160 mph (260 km/h) was observed.
  In Salem, Oregon, a wind gust of 90 mph (140 km/h) was observed.
  At Corvallis, Oregon, an inland location in the Willamette Valley, one-minute average winds reached 69 miles per hour (111 km/h), with a gust to 127 mph (204 km/h), before the station was abandoned due to "power failure and instruments demolished". Observations at the weather station resumed the next day.
  About 80 miles (130 km) to the north, at Portland, Oregon's major metropolitan area, measured wind gusts reached 116 mph (187 km/h) at the Morrison Street Bridge in downtown Portland.
  A peak gust of 92 mph (148 km/h) was observed in Vancouver, Washington at Pearson Field, around 9 miles (14 km) to the north of downtown Portland.
  Many anemometers, official and unofficial, within the heavily stricken area of northwestern Oregon and southwest Washington were damaged or destroyed before winds attained maximum velocity. For example, the wind gauge atop the downtown Portland studios of KGW radio and TV recorded two gusts of 93 mph (150 km/h), just before flying debris knocked the gauge off-line shortly after 5 p.m.
  For the Willamette Valley, the lowest peak gust officially measured was 86 mph (138 km/h) at Eugene. This value, however, is higher than the maximum peak gust generated by any other Willamette Valley windstorm in the 1948–2010 period.
  In the interior of western Washington, officially measured wind gusts included 78 miles per hour (126 km/h) at Olympia, 88 mph (142 km/h) at McChord Air Force Base, 100 mph (160 km/h) at Renton at 64 feet (20 m) and 98 mph (158 km/h) at Bellingham. In the city of Seattle, a peak wind speed of 65 mph (105 km/h) was recorded; this suggests gusts of at least 80 mph (130 km/h). Damaging winds reached as far inland as Spokane.
  Wind gusts of 58 mph (93 km/h), the National Weather Service minimum for "High Wind Criteria," or higher were reported from San Francisco, to Vancouver, British Columbia.
caption: Most of these peak gusts were taken at official stations[5]
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2004:11:23 12:20:42", "Image ExifOffset": "156", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "294", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5470", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "508", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "625"}