Columbus Day storm of '62

[Cheechako]

Here in the PNW we all remember this storm. There's a reason the coast is
called the "graveyard of the Pacific". Check out the wind speeds:

[Montanan]

A.k.a. Typhoon Freda,

Hmmm, peak velocity at 179 mph (288 km/h); may have need to put in an extra reefing.

The extratropical wave cyclone deepened to a minimum central pressure of at least 960 hPa (28 inHg), and perhaps as low as 958 hPa (28.3 inHg), a pressure which would be equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale. Since it was an extratropical cyclone, its wind field was neither as compact nor as strong as a tropical cyclone. All-time record-low land-based pressures (up to 1962) included 969.2 hPa (28.62 inHg) at Astoria, 970.5 hPa (28.66 inHg) at Hoquiam, Washington, and 971.9 hPa (28.70 inHg) at North Bend, Oregon. The Astoria and Hoquiam records were broken by a major storm on December 12, 1995 (which measured 966.1 hPa (28.53 inHg) at Astoria); this event, however, did not generate winds as intense as the Columbus Day Storm of 1962.

In less than 12 hours, more than 11 billion board feet (26,000,000 m3) of timber was blown down in northern California, Oregon and Washington combined; some estimates put it at 15 billion board feet (35,000,000 m3). This exceeded the annual timber harvest for Oregon and Washington at the time. This value is above any blowdown measured for East Coast storms, including hurricanes; even the often-cited 1938 New England hurricane, which toppled 2.65 billion board feet (6,300,000 m3), falls short by nearly an order of magnitude.

Estimates put the dollar damage at approximately $230 million to $280 million for California, Oregon and Washington combined. Those figures in 1962 dollars translate to $1.8 Billion to $2.2 Billion in 2014 Dollars.