The combination of heavy rain and wind, more reminiscent of November than June, occurred yesterday and this morning, causing significant impacts.
Wind gusts reached 35-50 mph, impacting trees that had lost all their leaves, leading to broken branches and large trees. My bike ride to UW along the tree-lined Burke-Gilman trail was interrupted by several large trees (see picture below).
Tens of thousands of Seattle City Light customers lost power this morning. Same with Puget Sound Energy.
Below is a chart of maximum overnight winds. Some mountain locations had wind gusts exceeding 60 mph, with gusts exceeding 45 mph near Puget Sound, the Sound and the Washington coast.
Why is the wind so strong?
The figure below shows sea level pressure (solid line) at 8am this morning. A low pressure system in the Pacific Ocean passes north of western Washington, creating a large north-south pressure differential that accelerates winds to the north.
Total rainfall? In the last 36 hours (see below), the western slopes of the Cascades and Coastal Mountain received 2-4.5 inches…. a lot for June.
Puget Sound was overshadowed by the Olympics and Seattle “only” received about an inch.
If you really want world-class mountain rain protection, head to a station just south of Port Townsend, which received just 0.11 inches over the same period (see red arrow). No wonder people retire there.
The forecast is excellent for this event.
Western Washington and Oregon rivers are currently experiencing very high water levels, some reaching record levels (see below, blue and black dots are much higher than normal).
I hope drought monitors will consider dropping the “moderate drought” designation for the western Cascades slopes.
There are more showers across the region today, as shown in the latest radar images (see below)
And the rainfall isn’t over yet! Another water vapor plume (aka atmospheric river) is rapidly approaching (see water vapor satellite image below)
Rain will gradually increase tomorrow morning. By the time the precipitation ends Wednesday morning, significant rainfall will occur, especially in the northern Cascades and SW British Columbia mountains (see 48-hour totals ending 5 a.m. Wednesday below).
Enjoy this humid time. Expect drier conditions and a slow start Wednesday through Saturday, as our highs rise into the mid-70s.
