On the morning of Friday, October 12, 1962—Columbus Day—a massive storm hit the coast of northern California. The storm had originated several days earlier in the Pacific Ocean, about five hundred miles north of Wake Island. Re-energized by a combination of unusual meteorological conditions, the storm moved north with the gathering force of a Category 3 hurricane. Originally named Typhoon Freda by meteorologists and called the Big Blow by many, it may have been the most powerful extratropical cyclone ever to hit the western United States.

With barometric pressure plunging and with gusts at Cape Blanco's Coast Guard station measuring at over 145 miles per hour (some estimates put the wind speeds there at over 170 miles per hour), the havoc wreaked by the Columbus Day Storm extended fromthe northernmost California coast to southern British Columbia. The storm caused between $3 billion and $5 billion (in 2013 value) in property damage and the death of over fifty people.

Beset by heavy rainfall, California suffered mudslides and damage to buildings and highways, and the World Series games between the New York Yankees and the Giants were cancelled in San Francisco. In Seattle, the World's Fair was in its final week of operation, and the swaying and groaning of the Space Needle forced its evacuation. In Portland, however, on the afternoon after the storm, the Oregon State Beavers and the Washington Huskies football teams battled it out on the rain-sodden grass of Multnomah Stadium.

Oregon experienced the full brunt of the typhoon and suffered more damage than any other state.