Washington 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 314 Washington reports since 2016 whose narrative mentions trees, 207 are types NOAA did not record before 1996. Washington has 187 reports before 1996 and 9,855 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 268 of the 314 Washington reports since 2016 whose narrative mentions trees. Their combined count peaked in 2017 (425 reports), 2020 (357) and 2018 (340). Counting wind and ice alone, the top year was 2015 with 167 reports.

The seven types averaged 138 reports a year in 1996–2005 and 256 in 2016–2025. Heavy snow explains most of the rise: 1,580 of the 2,556 reports in 2016–2025, against 582 in 1996–2005. For a yard tree, the wind and ice columns are the ones to watch.

*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 834 high wind, strong wind, thunderstorm wind and ice storm reports in Washington. 521 of them, 62 percent, fell between November and March, and the three heaviest months were January, November and December.

Washington has a second, smaller season. Thunderstorm wind produced 165 reports since 2016, 144 of them from May to September, which is why the summer bars do not drop to zero; it is also the type most often tied to trees in Washington narratives. Ice storms added 79 reports, with the heaviest months January 2017 (25), January 2024 (20) and February 2017 (15).

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

Spokane County, Okanogan County and Chelan County top the list on all reports, with 707, 581 and 440. On wind and ice alone the leaders are Spokane County (124), Pacific County (99) and Wahkiakum County (91), 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 39 Washington 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 Washington: Mar 2017, high wind; May 2020, thunderstorm wind; Jan 2021, high wind; Nov 2024, high wind. 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 Washington, 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.

• Sep 25, 2024. A dry cold front set off thunderstorms across eastern Washington. Downdraft winds raised dust storms, dropped large limbs onto cars, uprooted trees and damaged roofs; about 23,000 customers lost power across Pend Oreille, Spokane, Stevens and Whitman counties.
• Jan 13, 2021. A cold-front windstorm hit the Spokane area hardest. Spokane International tied its second-highest gust on record at 71 mph, roughly 103,000 households lost power, restoration took about a week, and a tree falling on a car killed its driver.
• Nov 19, 2024. A rapidly deepening low offshore drove unusually strong easterly winds into Puget Sound. Trees fell on homes and vehicles from Seattle to Whatcom County, a train hit a fallen tree near Stanwood, and NOAA’s narrative attributes 2 deaths to falling trees.
• Jun 25, 2018. An overnight line of severe thunderstorms crossed the Cascades and the Okanogan Highlands. Trees came down on a house in Twisp and across lines near Mazama, and downed lines started fires in the Methow Valley.
• Nov 13, 2017. A Pacific storm brought gusts near 70 mph to western Washington during the afternoon commute. Up to 200,000 customers lost power, a falling tree killed a driver in Renton, and power restoration cost a little over $7 million.

By damage rather than report count, the largest Washington episode in the file is the Labor Day east-wind event that began on Sep 7, 2020 (high wind reports), with $1.05 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 Washington.

Method

• Source. NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database bulk files. Yearly counts by event type cover 1954 to June 2026; event detail (dates, zones, magnitudes, narratives, deaths) covers January 2016 to June 2026, 3,923 Washington 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. 83 percent of Washington’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 Oregon 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 Washington county table.