Oregon storm records, 1950–2026

Reports by decade

The jump in the table is a recording change, not a change in the weather. From 1950 to 1995 NOAA’s database kept only three event types: tornado, thunderstorm wind and hail. In 1996 it widened to the full list of event types, which now includes high wind, strong wind, ice storm and heavy snow. Of the 230 Oregon reports since 2016 whose narrative mentions trees, 154 are types NOAA did not record before 1996. Oregon has 276 reports before 1996 and 11,163 from 1996 on.

So a long-run comparison is only fair on the three original types, shown in the middle column. Anything that adds the other types has to start in 1996.

*2020–2026 covers January 2020 to June 2026; 2026 is a partial year and NOAA publishes with a lag of several months. Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, yearly counts by state and event type.

Tree-damaging event types by year since 1996

Seven event types cover most fallen trees and broken limbs: high wind, strong wind, thunderstorm wind, ice storm, heavy snow, winter storm and tornado. They account for 194 of the 230 Oregon reports since 2016 whose narrative mentions trees. Their combined count peaked in 2006 (422 reports), 2005 (319) and 1999 (277). Counting wind and ice alone, the top year was 2006 with 343 reports.

Oregon’s peak years are wind years: in 2006, high wind alone made up 289 of the 422 reports. The seven types averaged 224 reports a year in 1996–2005 and 178 in 2016–2025, so the recent decade has been quieter than the early 2000s.

*2026 is January to June 2026 only. Heavy snow and winter storm reports include mountain zones where few people live.

When wind and ice hit: month of year

From January 2016 to June 2026, NOAA logged 959 high wind, strong wind, thunderstorm wind and ice storm reports in Oregon. 690 of them, 72 percent, fell between November and March, and the three heaviest months were January, November and December.

Oregon’s winter season is sharper than Washington’s. Thunderstorm wind added 135 reports since 2016, 112 of them from May to September. Ice storms added 49 reports, with the heaviest months January 2024 (20), January 2017 (11) and December 2022 (5).

For pruning, that points to late summer and early fall: deadwood and weak limbs are best dealt with before October. The best time to trim trees in the Pacific Northwest sets that against species timing.

County ranking, 2016–2026

Curry County, Lane County and Klamath County top the list on all reports, with 253, 249 and 232. On wind and ice alone the leaders are Curry County (173), Lane County (149) and Lincoln County (129), so read the wind and ice column, not only the total, when you size up the risk to a yard tree.

Totals count every report that touched the county, including forecast-zone reports shared with neighbors, so the county column adds up to more than the state total. Peak months are the three busiest months for all types.

All 36 Oregon counties. NOAA Storm Events, January 2016 to June 2026; zone reports assigned to counties with the NWS zone-county correlation file in force on the event date.

Deaths under falling trees

NOAA records where each storm death happened. Across Washington and Oregon it lists 737 storm fatalities from 1996 to June 2026, and 20 of them have the location “Under Tree”, the only tree-related location code in the file. 15 of the 20 happened between November and March.

Since 2016, when this page’s event detail starts, 4 of those deaths were in Oregon: Apr 2017, high wind; Nov 2021, thunderstorm wind; Jan 2024, winter storm (2 deaths). Of all 20, NOAA codes 18 as direct deaths and 2 as indirect. Names are not published here.

The five largest wind and ice episodes, 2016–2026

NOAA groups reports from one weather system into an episode. Ranked by how many wind and ice reports each episode produced in Oregon, these are the five largest since 2016. Gusts are the highest measured or estimated value among the episode’s reports, in knots (1 kt is about 1.15 mph); damage is NOAA’s property estimate in nominal dollars.

• May 30, 2020. Unusually moist, unstable air fed fast-moving severe thunderstorms across central and northeast Oregon. NOAA estimated winds up to 115 mph in Wasco County; reports include trees and lines down and a tree damaging a home.
• Jan 16, 2024. The second week of the January 2024 freeze. More freezing rain fell on top of the earlier ice, with about half an inch inferred at Portland, bringing new outages, falls and travel disruption across the Willamette Valley, Coast Range and Gorge.
• Nov 13, 2020. A strong cold front out of the Gulf of Alaska brought high winds to the northern and central Oregon coast, with a peak measured gust of 57 kt (about 66 mph).
• Dec 26, 2022. A frontal windstorm closed US 26, US 20 and OR 173 with downed trees, and a 71 mph gust was measured at Santiam Pass. On I-84 near exit 40 a falling tree hit a pickup, killing one person.
• Jan 11, 2021. A series of slow fronts brought heavy rain and wind. A fir about 90 feet tall fell onto cars, trees blocked highways, and more than 100,000 customers lost power across northwest Oregon and southwest Washington.

By damage rather than report count, the largest Oregon episode in the file is the Labor Day east-wind event that began on Sep 7, 2020 (high wind, strong wind reports), with $3.62 billion in NOAA property estimates; NOAA’s narratives note that some wind-damaged areas later burned in the fires that followed. For a downed tree on a house or car, see fallen tree removal and storm damage and tree insurance in Oregon.

Method

• Source. NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database bulk files. Yearly counts by event type cover 1951 to June 2026; event detail (dates, zones, magnitudes, narratives, deaths) covers January 2016 to June 2026, 3,369 Oregon reports.
• 1996 coverage change. Before 1996 only tornado, thunderstorm wind and hail were recorded. Totals that cross 1996 are not a trend, and the decade table keeps the three original types separate for that reason.
• Zones and counties. 80 percent of Oregon’s 2016–2026 reports are filed by NWS forecast zone rather than county. For the county table, each zone report is assigned to every county that zone covers, using the NWS zone-county correlation file in force on the event date; the 2019-04-02 file stands in for 2016–2018 because earlier files could not be retrieved.
• Wind and ice means the high wind, strong wind, thunderstorm wind and ice storm event types. Mentions trees means the event narrative contains the word “tree”.
• Deaths. The fatality file has no state column; deaths are matched to a state through the event record, which this extract holds from 2016 on, so earlier “Under Tree” deaths are shown for both states together.
• 2026 is partial. The latest month in the files is June 2026, and NOAA revises recent months as reports arrive. Damage figures are nominal dollars as entered by the NWS office.

The same caveats apply to the storm sections on county and city pages; the site’s methodology page has the rest. For the neighboring state, see Washington storm records, and for what to do when a tree is already down, emergency tree service.

Every county’s hazard ratings and burn rules sit in the Oregon county table.