The November 13, 2017 windstorm

What happened

A strong low moved up from the southwest toward Vancouver Island, and its front crossed the Oregon and Washington coast overnight into November 13. Cape Disappointment gusted to 75 mph, the Megler Bridge recorded sustained winds of 62 mph, and the Rockhouse station in Oregon’s Coast Range reached 74 mph.

The strongest winds reached Puget Sound and the north interior between about 2 and 7 p.m., in the middle of the commute. Ferndale gusted to 69 mph, Whidbey Island and Coupeville to 59 mph and Brinnon on Hood Canal to 60 mph. Ferries were delayed or cancelled, and heavy rain caused some urban flooding.

The storm in NOAA’s numbers

NOAA’s Storm Events Database files this storm as 5 episodes from the National Weather Service offices in Medford (MFR), Portland (PQR) and Seattle (SEW), dated November 12–14, 2017. Counting the six tree-relevant report types (high wind, strong wind, thunderstorm wind, ice storm, winter storm and heavy snow), the episodes hold 19 reports: 18 high wind and 1 strong wind (5 in Oregon; 14 in Washington). The same episodes hold 1 other report (hail 1), which are not counted in that total. The highest gust among the wind reports is 65 knots (about 75 mph), measured, in NOAA’s South Coast forecast zone in Washington. Of the counted reports, 5 mention trees in the narrative.

A report is one entry per forecast zone or county per event, so one storm crossing many zones produces many reports. Gusts are in knots as NOAA records them (1 kt is about 1.15 mph).

Affected counties

24 counties have at least one counted report (10 in Oregon; 14 in Washington). The most reports touched Jefferson County, WA (3), King County, WA (3) and Clatsop County, OR (2). Most wind, ice and snow reports are filed by forecast zone, and a zone report is assigned here to every county that zone covers, so a county’s number is the reports that touched it, not separate incidents.

Damage, deaths and injuries

NOAA’s property damage field for these episodes adds up to $6.4 million in nominal dollars, as entered by the NWS offices at the time and not adjusted for inflation. The event records list 1 death (1 direct, 0 indirect) and 2 injuries across these episodes. NOAA’s fatality file gives a location for each death it holds: “Vehicle/Towed Trailer” 1.

All of the $6.4 million was entered by NOAA’s Seattle office; the largest items are $2 million for the East Puget Sound Lowlands, $1.5 million for the Bellevue zone and $1 million for the Bremerton area. One direct death, coded “Vehicle/Towed Trailer”, and two injuries are recorded.

What it meant for trees

NOAA describes trees blown down across western Washington and as many as 200,000 customers without power. A tree fell on a car in Renton, killing the driver and seriously injuring a passenger, and another fell on a mobile home in Port Orchard and seriously injured a teenager. On the Oregon side, trees and limbs came down around Manzanita, a fallen tree closed US 101 for cleanup, and trees closed parts of US 26 west of Elsie and Highway 30 near Knappa. Trees also fell on Puget Island, where power went out.

Mid-November storms catch many broadleaf trees with leaves still on, after the first fall rains have softened the ground, the same setup as the October 2021 and November 2024 storms. NOAA’s Seattle office put a damage estimate on 11 of its 12 reports, which is why a single afternoon of wind carries a $6.4 million total.

What homeowners can learn from it

• Commute-hour storms put people under trees in cars. If a high wind warning covers your drive home, leaving early or late cuts the time spent on tree-lined roads at the peak.
• Know what your utility clears. NOAA puts power restoration after this storm at just over $7 million. See Puget Sound Energy tree trimming and Seattle City Light tree trimming for what each utility handles near lines.
• Photograph before anything is moved. Pictures of the tree, the stump or root plate and the damage are the evidence an insurer will want; storm damage and tree insurance in Oregon and storm damage and tree insurance in Washington explain what policies usually cover.
• If a tree is on the house, a car or a line, get people out of reach first. Then call the utility for anything touching wires; emergency tree service and fallen tree removal cover what happens next, and tree work safety explains why a crew should handle trees under tension.

Local pages: emergency tree service in Seattle, Bellevue and Renton. Before the next storm season, the tree risk checklist walks you around your own trees, and Oregon storm records and Washington storm records put this storm in context.

How this page was built

Every number above is computed from NOAA’s Storm Events bulk files for episodes 120555, 121585, 121586, 120542, 120875. Episodes were chosen by ranking all Washington and Oregon episodes from 2016 to mid-2026 on tree-relevant report counts, property damage and tree mentions, and episodes from different offices or states were merged when their narratives describe the same system on the same dates. Mountain snow reports from the same system are separate episodes and are left out. Several Seattle reports verify high wind with sustained speeds rather than gusts, so the peak gust in the table understates the wind in those zones. Damage figures are NOAA’s nominal-dollar estimates and are often blank. See all storms on the storm history index and the site’s methodology.