Video: 'The Columbus Day Storm 1962'

(Friday, October 12, 1962, weather observer writes “Abandoned Station” on the weather observation form in Corvallis, Oregon, at 4:15 p.m. PDT) — The devastating Columbus Day Storm, a contender for the title of most powerful extratropical cyclone recorded in the U.S. in the 20th century, struck the West Coast of Canada and the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States today, resulting in some 46 deaths.

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At Oregon’s Cape Blanco, an anemometer (minus one of its cups) registered wind gusts in excess of 145 mph (233 km/h); some reports put the peak velocity at 179 mph (288 km/h).

Video: 'THE COLUMBUS DAY STORM OF 1962'

At Corvallis, Oregon, an inland location in the Willamette Valley, one-minute average winds reached 69 miles per hour (111 km/h), with a gust to 127 mph (204 km/h), before the station was abandoned due to “power failure and instruments demolished”. Observations at the weather station resumed the next day.

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The resultant damage was estimated at around $230 million to $280 million for California, Oregon, and Washington combined.

The storm ranks among the most intense to strike the region since at least 1948, likely since the January 9, 1880 “Great Gale” and snowstorm.