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The Pacific Northwest has endured deadly and powerful windstorms in recent years that have knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people at a time. But none has been worse than the Columbus Day storm that battered the west coast 50 years ago Friday. (Image courtesy National Weather Service)

Friday marks 50th anniversary of 'granddaddy' of wind storms

BY Tim Haeck  on October 11, 2012 @ 2:56 pm (Updated: 11:40 am - 10/12/12 )

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The Pacific Northwest has endured deadly and powerful windstorms in recent years that have knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people at a time. But none has been worse than the Columbus Day storm that battered the West Coast 50 years ago Friday.

The forecast for October 12, 1962 called for partly cloudy with a few showers, with no mention of destructive winds. But the massive storm that blew in packed winds ranging from 50-to-150 miles per hour.

Bob Bolerjack, with Snohomish County Public Utility District has been doing some research on what happened 50 years ago, talking to people who lived through it.

"We spoke this week with one of our retirees who worked on one of the line crews back then and he said that it was an eight day ordeal for those crews. He said that they worked about three days and three nights before taking their first break and he said that he can remember the wind blowing so hard that lines were coming down faster than they could put them up again."

Sustained winds were registered at Paine Field in Everett at 52 miles per hour with gusts to 81 miles per hour. It was a lot worse elsewhere.

National Weather Service forecaster Ted Buehner calls it the strongest non-tropical windstorm to hit the lower 48 states.

"It is the granddaddy of all windstorms, and all other windstorms are compared to that one," said Buehner.

As a 6-year-old in Portland, Buehner remembers the lights going out.

"Everything was crashing all over the house, down on the roof, it was just a frightening event."

He says it was that storm that sparked his interest in the weather. He says he started forecasting at age 10 and the rest, he says, "is history."

The storm killed 46 people up and down the coast, and left a lasting memory for anybody now in their late 50s, or older.

"It injured hundreds more, blew down or destroyed thousands of buildings throughout the region. There were millions of people without power from the San Francisco bay area to southern British Columbia and [the storm] blew down 15 billion board feet of timber from the coast to as far east as Western Montana," said Buehner.

The windstorm hit on a Friday night and lots of people remember some bizarre high school football games.

"A football game at Lake Stevens High [had] winds blowing so hard that the opening kickoff went straight up in the air and landed five yards behind the kicker. The second half kickoff went way beyond the end zone, into the trees and they had to find another ball to continue the game," said Bolerjack.

The storm started in the San Francisco Bay area during the morning commute, it hit a little after dark in Portland, a short time later in Seattle, and then moved into British Columbia at night. Forecasters in Seattle did not warn of the historic wind storm.

"As the storm was moving its way up the coast, there were no observations," said Buehner. "They were just disappearing off the maps. You didn't know exactly what was happening and of course in that era there was no satellite imagery, there was no Doppler radar as we have today. There were no computer models. They were literally forecasting blind."

Power was out for a week in some areas. Buehner says just imagine the impact of such a storm today on a society reliant on electricity, dependent on power and communication, and a population more than double what it was in 1962.

Tim Haeck, KIRO Radio Reporter
Tim Haeck is a news reporter with KIRO Radio. While Tim is one of our go-to, no-nonsense reporters, he also has a sensationally dry sense of humor and it will surprise some to learn he is a weekend warrior.
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Comments (8)


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  • Zagnut wrote...
    I wonder what the heck the humans did back then to cause such a calamity with the weather!
    October 12, 2012 6:30 am
    .
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Brian Oblivion wrote...
    I remember it well....
    October 12, 2012 12:08 pm
    I was 10 years old and we were visiting my grandmother in West Seattle when it started, ended up spending the night. Many trees down everywhere, school was closed for a few days.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • clevesside wrote...
    Missed some siding, shingles, and bricks...
    October 12, 2012 12:15 pm
    ...on our house in Magnolia. The scariest part was watching the trees in the yards swaying to the point of collapse. Looking out to see houses go dark and wondering if it's the end of the world as we know it. No one saw it coming at all. Today you could plan for it, but not stop it. Maybe see it again in the next 100 years.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • PaCartwright wrote...
    I remember it, too...
    October 12, 2012 2:32 pm
    I was 9 years old and along with clevesside my family lived in Magnolia, six blocks south of Magnolia Elementary School. The dining room window blew in and then the lights went out. The howling of the wind was incredible and we thought it would never end. The Columbus Day Storm of 1962 was the remains of Typhoon Freda. By the time the low pressure center swept up the Washington coast, the barometer was reading about 28.50 inches.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • clevesside wrote...
    Weatherman's challenge.....
    October 12, 2012 2:59 pm
    ...for the alleged next round o' suds is: name the last low pressure reading equal to or less than the Columbus Day Storm here. Blond lager for me....
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • PaCartwright wrote...
    1995 & 2005 or 2006
    October 13, 2012 7:04 am
    I don't have the exact date, but I recall a huge wind storm that ripped through Washington state one year before the big snow of December 1996. My barometer made it down close to 28.20"/955 mb. There was another one with an almost equally low pressure reading about the middle of the last decade. A blonde lager it is unless I can come up with the dates for those storms.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Ryder wrote...
    Will Never Forget That Day
    October 13, 2012 8:39 am
    I was 16, living one block away from Bothell Senior High. I recaill hearing reports on KJR of a massive wind storm striking San Franciisco. The forcast for Seattle was for winds up to 50 mph.

    My dog was acting strange. He was quiet and seemed to be looking for a place to hide. There was that odd feeling in the air. I just remember thinking to myself that the weatherman was wrong.

    Needles to say that was an exciting night which for me ended up with my bedroom window being blown out and our fence blon down. Bottom line: My dog was right. Your dog knows more than you ever will. And you don't even know where you are. (That line was openy stolen from Firesign Theatre.)

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • clevesside wrote...
    Good to quote Firesign Theater.....
    October 13, 2012 2:23 pm
    ...than having to explain them to your kids. Oy.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
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