Great Coastal Gale of 2007
The Great Coastal Storm of 2007 was a series of three powerful Pacific storms that affected the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia between December 1, 2007 and December 4, 2007. The storms on December 2 and 3 produced an extremely long-duration wind event with hurricane-force wind gusts of up to at Holy Cross, Washington on the Washington Coast, and at Bay City, Oregon on the Oregon Coast. The storm also brought heavy rains and produced widespread record flooding throughout the region, and was blamed for at least 18 deaths. Meteorologists at the Oregon Climate Service named the storm in January 2008, drawing from the Great Gale of 1880, a similar powerful storm that affected the region in 1880. Meteorological synopsis On November 29, 2007, a strong low pressure system, fed by the remnants of Typhoon Mitag and Typhoon Hagibis, formed in the central Pacific Ocean, and was carried via the Pineapple Express to the Pacific Northwest. Anticipating the storm, the National Weather Service issued its first-ever hurricane-force wind warning for the Oregon coast. The first of the three separate storms arrived on December 1, accompanying frigid temperatures across much of Washington which