On October 12, 1962 the most powerful and damaging storm since the arrival of European settlers struck the Pacific Northwest, bringing winds exceeding 100 mph as well as extensive loss of life and property. It is believed that this storm was the most powerful non-tropical storm to hit the conterminious U.S. over the past century.

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the storm, the UW Department of Atmospheric Sciences organized a gathering to review the Columbus Day storm and its impacts.  Professor Cliff Mass began with a description of the nature of the storm and the extreme conditions it produced. Windstorm expert Wolf  Read compared the storm to other great Northwest windstorms and described some of the massive damage that ensued. Mr. Mark Cole, present at the Mt. Hebo radar site that day, told about the hurricane-force winds that tore open the radar dome. We ended with personal remembrances and comments from the audience.  Mr. Steve Pool of KOMO-TV was master of ceremonies.

Videos of the presentations are available on the Web at various resolutions using the following links:

Small (poorer quality but should work on all computers)
Medium (720 lines)
HIgh Resolution (1080 lines)

Powerpoints of the presentations are also available:

Cliff Mass presentation   ~cliff/ColumbusDayStormCliffFinal.ppt
Mark Cole presentation  ~ cliff/WolfReadFInal.ppt
Wolf Read presentation ~cliff/HeboColeFinal.ppt

This gathering was underwritten by the Cliff Mass Weather Research Fund.