Winter Storm Bozeman Recap: Snow Blankets Northwest, Rockies, Plains, Midwest, Northeast

By Nick Wiltgen
Published: November 17,2014




 
Winter Storm Bozeman put down a long swath of snow from the Pacific Northwest through the Rockies, Plains, Midwest and parts of the Northeast on Nov. 13-17, 2014.
(MORE: Winter Storm Bozeman Impacts)
Over a foot of snow fell in the mountains of Idaho, western Montana, and Colorado. Some areas also saw ice accumulation from freezing rain, especially in the Pacific Northwest (see below for a recap of the western portion of this winter storm event).
On Sunday, snow fell as far south as Midland, Texas. Up to 3.5 inches of snow fell in the Texas Panhandle near Amarillo, while parts of Oklahoma saw up to 4.5 inches of snow. Paducah, Kentucky, picked up 1.6 inches of snow Sunday.
The last of the large-scale snows wound down Monday across the upper Ohio River Valley as the low pressure center associated with Winter Storm Bozeman lifted into Canada. However, cold winds in the wake of the low set off heavy lake-effect snows near the Great Lakes and lighter snows on the western slopes of the Appalachians. The lake-effect snows were expected to continue for several days.
(MORE: Read NWS Alerts)
The name "Bozeman" was chosen for this season's "B" storm in honor of a Bozeman (Montana) High School Latin class which helped come up with the 2013-2014 names list.
(MORE: Science Behind Naming Winter Storms)

Unusually Early Southern Snow?

Winter Storm Bozeman brought the season's first measurable snow to a number of areas, including:
- Lubbock, Texas (0.5 inch Sunday). Lubbock's average first measurable snow is Dec. 9, but the earliest snow on record for Lubbock came on Oct. 17 in 1999.
- Amarillo, Texas (2.5 inches Sunday). Amarillo's earliest measurable snow was Oct. 8, 1970, when 2.9 inches fell.
- Tulsa, Oklahoma (0.4 inch Sunday). This was the earliest measurable snow for Tulsa since Nov. 8, 2000 and was one of only four other times on record with measurable snow in the city on or before November 16.
- Wichita, Kansas (1.8 inches Sunday). Wichita has not seen that much snow on a single day this early in the season since Nov. 4, 1974.
- St. Louis, Missouri (2.4 inches Saturday and Sunday). This was the earliest measurable snowfall in St. Louis since Nov. 3, 1997, and Sunday's 1.7 inches was the heaviest single-day snowfall this early since Nov. 13, 1997. The city's earliest measurable snowfall came on Oct. 20 in 1916, and its earliest 1-inch snow was Nov. 5, 1951.
- Oklahoma City (2.5 inches Sunday). This was heaviest calendar-day snow so early in the season, beating the old record (4 inches on Nov. 17, 1980) by one day. Oklahoma's capital city hadn't seen a November with more than an inch of snow since 2006 and had only 17 Novembers dating to 1893 with an inch of snow or more prior to Sunday.
- Dallas-Fort Worth reported a trace of snow Sunday evening, the first time in 117 years of records Dallas-Ft. Worth saw a trace of snow fall on November 16.
- Snow accumulated on grass and vehicles in Mineral Wells and Decatur, Texas. Sleet was observed in Waco, Texas and flurries were seen as far south as Burnet and Llano Counties in central Texas.
Before Winter Storm Bozeman, there had been two unusually early snows in the South: the post-Halloween event in parts of South Carolina and the southern Appalachians, and some light snow that streaked across the Mid-South on Thursday, Nov. 13 (while Bozeman was still in the Northwest and Rockies).
(RECAP: Post-Halloween Southern Snow)
Memphis, Tennessee, picked up 0.1 inch of snow Thursday morning, causing traffic accidents and resulting in the city's earliest measurable snow in any fall-winter season since snow fell on Nov. 7 in 1991. On average, Memphis's first measurable snow comes Jan. 12.
Little Rock, Arkansas, also picked up 0.1 inch of snow Thursday, its third-earliest measurable snow on record behind Nov. 2 in 1951 and Nov. 9 in 1892.
(MORE: Record Earliest First Snow Where You Live)

Early Snow for Pacific Northwest

The storm system that earned the name Bozeman began moving into the Pacific Northwest on Wednesday night, transporting mild, moist Pacific air over the shallow, cold air mass near the ground. This resulted in an unusually early spell of winterlike weather for the region.
Strangely for mid-November, the Portland, Oregon metro area and Willamette Valley were also affected by Winter Storm Bozeman. One-tenth to one-quarter inch of ice accumulation was observed Thursday morning in parts of the Portland metro, as well as Salem, Corvallis and Eugene, accumulating in trees in some areas.
An observer near Blodgett, Oregon, west of Corvallis reported three-eighths of an inch of ice with many trees down as of Friday morning. Over a foot of snow in addition to one-half inch ice accumulation lead to a roof collapse of the Woodgrain Mill in Prineville, Oregon Friday morning.
The precipitation changed over to rain in the southern Willamette Valley later Thursday morning, but a renewed push of colder air flipped the precipitation back to snow and freezing rain in the afternoon. Large flakes were seen falling in Corvallis, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, on Thursday afternoon while ice coated cars and sidewalks in Portland due to freezing rain. Walking was nearly impossible on sidewalks in some of the city's hillier neighborhoods.
Winter Storm Bozeman became a record November snowstorm in Boise, Idaho, according to the National Weather Service, with 7.6 inches of snow reported.

Snowfall Reports

Here are the top reported snowfall totals by state from Winter Storm Bozeman:
- Colorado: 33 inches just outside Ouray.
- Wyoming: 32.3 inches at Grassy Lake SNOTEL (elevation 7,265 feet) in far western Wyoming.
- Idaho: 28.5 inches at Vienna Mine SNOTEL (elevation 8,963 feet) in the mountains of south-central Idaho.
- Montana: 21.4 inches at Black Bear SNOTEL (elevation 8,150 feet) in far western Montana.
- Oregon: 19 inches (with 0.5 inch ice accumulation) in Prineville in central Oregon.
- Utah: 15.8 inches at Garden City Summit SNOTEL (elevation 7,600 feet) near the Idaho border.
- Washington: 15 inches near White Salmon, in far southern Washington.
- New Mexico: 15 inches at two locations near Angel Fire and a third location near Black Lake, all in northern New Mexico.
- Minnesota: 8.8 inches near Lakefield.
- South Dakota: 8 inches near Wall Lake and Herrick in southeast South Dakota
- Nebraska: 7 inches in Chadron, Lynch, and near Gross, all in northern Nebraska.
- Ohio: 6.4 inches near Fryburg in northeast Ohio.
- Iowa: 6 inches at Spirit Lake and Graettinger, both in northwest Iowa.
- Indiana: 6 inches near New Pekin in southern Indiana.
- Kentucky: 5.5 inches at Walton, in the Cincinnati metropolitan area.
- Pennsylvania: 5.3 inches at Stoneboro in northwest Pennsylvania.
- Illinois: 5 inches at Salem in southern Illinois.
- Oklahoma: 4.5 inches at Laverne in northwest Oklahoma.
- Missouri: 4.3 inches in Fenton, near St. Louis.
- Kansas: 4 inches near Le Roy in east-central Kansas.
- Texas: 4 inches at Hereford and Claude, both in the Texas Panhandle.
- Arkansas: 3.5 inches near Quitman, Cave City and Calamine.
- Maine: 3.5 inches near Jackman.
- Vermont: 2.3 inches near Cabot.
Light snow also fell in parts of Michigan and New York, but due to the difficulty in separating storm-scale snow reports from the subsequent lake-effect snow, we have not listed a top total for either state here.
(PHOTOS: Winter Storm Bozeman)
This snow came a bit early, relative to average, in eastern Washington and eastern Oregon. The average first measurable snow in Pendleton, Oregon, and Yakima, Washington, comes in the final week of November. In Bend, Oregon, the average date of the first measurable snow is Nov. 17.

Recap: Damaging Winds Before the Winter Storm

Strong winds broke out in parts of the Pacific Northwest Tuesday and Wednesday, prompting high wind warnings for parts of western Washington and northwest Oregon, injuring one person in Portland and blowing trees onto houses in the Seattle-Tacoma area. At least 66,000 customers were still without power Wednesday morning in the two states as winds continued to knock down trees and power lines.
The winds are the result of the same winterlike air mass that has plunged all the way south to the Gulf Coast and eastward into the Ohio Valley behind a powerful cold front. A powerhouse high-pressure zone over western Canada and the northern U.S. is also trying to literally push this frigid but shallow air through gaps in the Rocky Mountains and from there into the Northwest, where it faces a second obstacle in the form of the Cascade Range.
The high, whose central pressure was 1051 millibars (31.03 inches of mercury) over Canada's Northwest Territories Tuesday afternoon, proved plenty strong enough to do just that. Winds began howling before sunrise Tuesday in the Columbia River Gorge just east of Portland, Oregon -- the most prominent gap in the Cascades, cutting a 4,000-foot-deep valley through the mountains.
Winds gusted as high as 66 mph at Crown Point, Oregon, just after 4 a.m. Tuesday according to a Weather Underground personal weather station. Powerful gusts continued throughout the day and night, and some 26 hours later Crown Point clocked a 79-mph gust at 6:22 a.m. Wednesday. The winds became even more ferocious there Thursday, when the site measured an 88-mph gust at 9:43 a.m.
Gusty winds knocked several trees on to I-90 in Denny Creek, Washington, prompting the closure of portions of the interstate on Wednesday. Wind gusts as high as 61 mph were observed Wednesday at Enumclaw, near the east Puget Sound lowlands in western Washington.
Farther west, sustained winds of 30 to 35 mph with gusts as high as 53 mph buffeted Portland International Airport, on the banks of the Columbia River, for much of the day Tuesday. Gusty winds continued at PDX on Wednesday and Thursday.
Despite the rough winds, most afternoon flight arrivals to and departures from the airport were on schedule Tuesday, according to the airport's website. The wet and icy conditions led to a few delays and cancellations Thursday.
However, a bicyclist was seriously injured on Naito Parkway in downtown Portland Tuesday afternoon after being hit by a large tree felled by the strong winds.
KGW-TV said some 50,000 customers had lost power by 2 p.m. PST Tuesday in the Portland-Vancouver area. The outages knocked out traffic lights in downtown Vancouver, Washington:
By early Wednesday morning, Clark Public Utilities had whittled their outages down to about 4,000 customers in southwest Washington, while Portland General Electric reported 10,800 customers in the dark in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties. Most customers in southwest Washington had power restored by Thursday.
Farther north, those cold easterly winds also cut through some of the passes through the Cascades in Washington, leading to winds that downed trees along the Route 410 corridor east of Tacoma, Washington, on Tuesday. Some fell on houses, as shown here:
KING-TV said some 25,000 customers lost power in western Washington Tuesday due to the winds. A peak gust of 59 mph was clocked in Enumclaw, where the White River exits the mountains into the Puget Sound lowlands.
Outages continued to mount Tuesday night and Wednesday morning as the winds continued. Puget Sound Energy said 52,000 customers were without power as of 7 a.m. PST Wednesday, mostly in Pierce and southern King counties. The utility said it had restored power to 130,000 customers, some of whom had lost power more than once.
About 6,000 customers were still in the dark Thursday afternoon. PSE said some customers may not see power restored until Friday. This is an issue, considering bitterly cold temperatures have settled into the region. On Wednesday morning, a record low of 28 degrees was set at the Seattle National Weather Service forecast office, which broke the previous record set in 2000.