Rogue Valley gets wind, rain, but not like coast

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December 04, 2007

By Anita Burke

Mail Tribune

While storms ravaged northwestern Oregon, the Rogue Valley weathered winter's first big storm relatively unscathed.

The strongest wind gust measured at the Medford airport during the storm that blew through Sunday and Monday was 48 mph at about 6:45 a.m. Monday. Sustained winds blew at 20 to 35 mph with gusts of around 40 mph, the National Weather Service office reported.

On the south coast, Cape Blanco reported a gust of 113 mph early this morning with peak winds consistently hitting 100 mph. Farther north, Bay City reported a 129 mph gust.

In Ashland, where the weather stations are in low-lying areas, winds of about 20 mph were reported with gusts of 25 to 30 mph Monday. At the Siskiyou Summit, winds were about 15 mph with gusts of 25 mph, an Oregon Department of Transportation weather station reported. Mount Ashland reported winds of 25 to 30 mph at the base and winds of 35 to 40 mph on the upper slopes at 8:30 a.m. Monday.

A falling tree knocked down a power line on Capital Avenue in east Medford at about 10:40 a.m. Monday, darkening homes and businesses for about 1,200 Pacific Power customers. Electricity was restored to most of them within a few minutes, and to the final 200 customers by mid-afternoon, company spokesman Monte Mendenhall said.

About 1,000 customers lost power when a circuit went down at the Campbell substation near the Rogue Valley Manor shortly before 5 p.m. Monday. Mendenhall said repairs were expected to take about an hour.

Rogue Valley Manor Public Relations Director Sarah Prewitt said back-up generators powered critical equipment at the health center and emergency lighting across the campus during the outage.

Electricity also was disrupted Monday afternoon at the Baldy switching station, which sends power to numerous communication transmitters, relays and translators on Mount Baldy. Some radio stations were off the air for a time, but utility crews expected to restore power by 8 p.m. Monday, Mendenhall said.

Although a wind advisory remained in effect for the Rogue Valley until 10 p.m. Monday, winds began to diminish around 4 p.m.

About a third of an inch of rain fell in Medford Monday afternoon.

"It was not anything we're not used to," said Brett Lutz, a journeyman forecaster at the Medford weather service office.

Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail aburke@mailtribune.com.

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