Tens of Thousands Have Lost Power as a Strong Cyclone Makes Landfall

As the models predicted, a strong storm with powerful winds is moving across our region, and nearly 100,000 customers are without power as I write this blog.

The radar imagery has been stunning.  At 7:30 AM, a well-defined low center (red arrow) was on the coast near the Columbia River.

And by 10 AM, the low was moving inland

Maximum winds so far today (through 10 AM) have been substantial over northern Oregon and southern Washington, with many locations getting to 50 mph.   Up to 54 mph in Olympia and several reaching 70 mph.

Early-season strong winds inevitably mean lots of power outages, with trees being untested and still with lots of leaves.

Right now, at 11:30 AM, about 71,000 customers have lost power in Washington, with more in Oregon, and the event is not over.

The latest European Center forecast suggests the strong winds, and thus power outages, will remain south of downtown Seattle.

Finally, the winds last night at Mt. Rainier's slope around 10,000 ft (Camp Muir), with gusts up to 101 mph:

This is the result of the strong upper-level low associated with this storm (see map at 700 hPa pressure, about 10,000 ft, for this morning).  Not a good time for an ascent. 😁

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Pacific Windstorm Will Hit The Pacific Northwest Late Thursday and Friday

Autumn began yesterday at 5 PM and the atmosphere has taken notice.

A significant midlatitude cyclone will cross the northern Oregon coast late Thursday and Friday morning, bringing strong winds and localized power outages.

Consider the UW WRF model forecast for Friday morning at 5 AM (sea level pressure and maximum wind gusts are shown below). 

Wow.  A very intense, but small, low-pressure center will make landfall on the northern Oregon Coast, with gusts up to 70 knots.   

 

Plotting the maximum wind gusts over time for this event (below) indicates the northern Oregon  Coast will get a direct hit with winds reaching 50 knots. 

This early in the season, this means power outages.

Other weather prediction systems are doing the same thing.   The excellent European Center model has a similar maximum wind swath. (The graphic below is in mph).  Seattle only gets some modest gusts.

The simulated satellite imagery for Thursday evening indicates an impressive system (the arrow points to the low center).  Looks like midwinter!

Precipitation totals from this system will be substantial, with the mountains and the coast getting several inches (see below).  Even eastern Washington gets substantial rain.  

All good for terminating the wildfire season and providing agriculture with a nice wetting rain.    Reservoirs will gain valuable water.

I am concerned about the lack of coastal wind warnings by the National Weather Service offices in Seattle and Portland (see their latest forecast graphics below).

They really need to have some kind of warning out for the northern Oregon coast.  

I could comment on issues with National Weather Service forecasts, but I will leave that to another time.

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Finally, someone emailed me about a good book on Northwest Weather.  Well, I do know one 😉

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