Would you believe we've been hit by a windstorm before, on this very date?

True story. It was November 13, 1981.

The storm created wind gusts topping 100mph along parts of the Oregon Coast, just like our current windstorm did. And gusts in the Willamette Valley were even stronger than this time around: 71mph in both Salem and Portland.

Amazingly, the 1981 storm was followed by a second windstorm two days later. The end result: 11 people killed; $50 million in damage and about 500,000 customers without power in our parts of Washington and Oregon.

Pretty ironic that 25 years later, a windstorm would hit us on the same exact date.

Thanks for reading...and here's to some calmer winds ahead!

Bruce Sussman
Meteorologist
bsussman@kgw.com

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