First fog, then wind — now snow, freeze warning

It’s been quite an eventful few days of weather on the High Desert — first dense fog, then high winds sending trees and power lines snapping. Sunday brought nine inches of snow at Mt. Bachelor, snow at the mountain passes and a freeze warning for the region for early Monday.

The National Weather Service issued a freeze warning for 1-10 a.m. Monday, warning residents that the temperatures could kill crops and other sensitive vegetation. It said the coldest temperatures were expected to be around 27 degrees near Redmond and in low-lying areas sheltered from the wind.

On Saturday, winds gusting close to 50 mph — and hitting 70 mph atop Mt. Bachelor — toppled dozens if not hundreds of trees around the High Desert, blocking roads and knocking out power while canceling flights and keeping police and utility crews scrambling. No injuries were reported.

A Deschutes County 911 dispatcher said there were trees down “all over the place,” as winds gusted close to 40 mph across the region and topped 50 mph at Redmond Airport in the early afternoon, making for a second day of canceled flights — this time not due to fog, but to windy and difficult landing and takeoff conditions. Conditions improved Sunday. Check flights status here.

Most winds had calmed somewhat by late Saturday night — though the 10 p.m. report from the Suttle Lake ODOT gauge reported winds from the west at 46 mph — with gusts to 84 mph.

The owner of Tumalo Lavender told NewsChannel 21 their greenhouse was destroyed by the winds, having survived 70 mph-plus gusts in the past.

The winds did blow out the dense fog that had cloaked the region late Friday and early Saturday, causing a dozen flight cancellations at RDM.

Hardest hit, as often happens, was south Deschutes County, where Midstate Electric Company reported scattered outages affecting more than 1,300 customers in the La Pine area.

A resident in Oregon Water Wonderland 2 said they lost power for over eight hours before the lights came back on late Saturday night.

Sunriver also had numerous downed trees, as did other nearby neighborhoods.

The NWS a wind advisory for Central Oregon until 11 p.m. Saturday and a high wind warning for the Portland area, where wind gusts could hit 60 mph.

Tens of thousands of Pacific Power customers lost power in outages on the coast and in western Oregon. Check their large-outage list here.

On KTVZ’s Facebook page, Kelly Loucks reported four trees down in the Oregon Water Wonderland subdivision. Rhonda Self reported losing tree branches and shingles off her garage. Susan Peters said she “lost a tree (that) hit my front porch.”

It was another day of trouble at Roberts Field, with several canceled flight arrivals and departures, a few making it in or out — and at least one where the passengers had a rough go of it and the pilot called off the landing due to high winds.

Matt Shea said it was a “disaster” for his wife, trying to get home from San Jose to Bend.

Shea said her Alaska Airlines flight from Portland circled the airport for 20 minutes, until the pilot aborted the landing and returned to Portland.

“My wife said the plane turbulence was so bad, it was making a lot of people sick,” he wrote.

Shea said his wife and a fellow passenger chose to rent a car, as there were no guarantees they’d get a flight out on Sunday. She got home around 8 p.m., nearly 12 hours after leaving San Jose.