A Review of the March 13 Windstorm

This winter has rewritten the rulebook for strong El Niños. Meteorologists were so certain that Southern California would be far wetter than normal, while the Pacific Northwest would be drier than normal. Instead, Southern California ended up with below-average rainfall for yet another winter, and the Pacific Northwest witnessed the rainiest winter in many locations on record. To our credit, many other things we predicted, such as a lack of lowland snowfall and above-normal temperatures throughout the West Coast, have come true, but still, this year is one many seasonal forecasters would like to forget.

We’ve had several strong storm systems over the past 12 months. We had our summer blow on August 29 and an intense storm on November 17. We even had a significant storm on March 10 that caused extensive coastal flooding throughout the region and ripped a Bellingham Home Depot to shreds. But the most impressive storm, in my mind, has to be the one that occurred only three days later.