Knockout blow: 2015’s Windstorm devastated Spokane and changed how we look at big pines

Inland Northwest weather disasters, such as the Ice Storm of 1996 and ”Snowpocalypse” of 2008, surprised the Spokane region when they hit.

But 10 years ago forecasters began warning folks that a big wind storm was headed Spokane’s way.

It hit with sledgehammer force on the afternoon of Nov. 17, 2015, about the time children were being let out school. Frightened parents in parked in pick-up zones could only watch as winds gusting 71 mph toppled 1,900 trees inside the city limits of Spokane, many of them massive ponderosa pines that crashed into powerlines and houses .

Thousands more were blown down in Spokane Valley and all across the region. The sustained power of the storm lasted hours into the dark, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers. The storm and its aftermath