Why Portland's National Weather Service radar went out morning of ...

The National Weather Service NEXRAD radar in Portland that tracks rain, snow and sleet across northwest Oregon went out for about five hours Thursday morning but was back on by about 10:40 a.m., officials said.

The radar went down at about 5:30 a.m., NWS officials said. Many private websites that use the NWS Portland radar, which is located between Portland and Scappoose, were showing an incomplete picture.

At one point, even though it was snowing in Salem, the radar didn’t show that actually happening.

The radar went down because of a blown fuse that likely happened when the power for it was switched from commercial power to a generator, NWS meteorologist Colby Neuman said. Electrical teams were able to fix it relatively quickly once they got on site.

“Obviously the timing was not good,” Neuman said. "It could go down again when it switches off generator power and back onto commercial power but we can go back up and fix it again if needed."

For a while Thursday morning, Neuman said NWS Portland was using web cameras, satellites, weather spotters and airport data from cities across Oregon to paint a picture of the weather that’s taking place.

When the Portland radar was down, the radar that was being shown came from Hoquiam, Washington. Because it’s so far away, there was much less detail of the Willamette Valley.

“There was snow falling, but it couldn't see it,” Neuman said. “It’s up at about 15,000 feet and most snow is being generated below that.”

The radar has gone out multiple times in the past but has been "pretty good" overall, Neuman said.

Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 18 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on X at @ZachsORoutdoors and BlueSky at oregonoutdoors.bsky.social