Major Wind Event About to Hit Western WA

Strong winds are hitting western Washington as a unusually powerful April storm moves into our coastal waters.

The 10 AM infrared satellite image shows the swirl of the huge storm, with its center just offshore of the WA/OR border.

I was more than excited to view the Langley Hill radar image from 10:37 AM, which picked up the circulation around the low center. (I put a red star at the center)  Langley Hill is the ONLY weather service radar than can do a scan at an angle less than .5 degrees, which gives it much more ability to view offshore.  You can thank Senator Maria Cantwell for this...she pushed the NWS to allow this low scan.

As predicted the cyclone brought strong winds along the Oregon coast (see below), with gusts to 60-70 mph.  A few exposed peaks even higher.

Now it is our turn.  Winds are rapidly increasing over western Washington and the max gusts so far (as of 10 AM) have reached 40- 50 mph on the southern WA coast and 72 mph at Destruction Island.  Gusts to 30-40 mph have reached the south Sound and NW Washington.  But you haven't seen anything yet!

The latest UW WRF model (the same one to be used in our proposed regional climate simulations) indicates a 10 AM position of a deep (975 hPa) low due west of the Long Beach Peninsula

 With movement northward during afternoon (5 PM shown below).

The WA coast is going to be hit very hard, with 60-70 mph gusts.

The latest NWS HRRR (High Resolution Rapid Refresh) surface wind forecasts over western WA are scary.  Here are the gust forecasts at 2 PM, 5 PM and 8 PM.
40-50 mph gusts everywhere and a number of areas (e.g. the coast, NW WA) experiencing 50-60 mph.  If this is true, expect substantial tree damage and power outage.

So please keep away from trees this afternoon and tonight (such in parks or the Burke-Gilman trail in Seattle).

As of 11 AM, tens of thousands of customers have lost power over Oregon and southwest Washington.   This is going to be a major event there.

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