There’s a lot of wind to talk about in this blog–a major Pacific storm will make landfall on the northwest coast tomorrow….and there will be strong winds.
But before I get into that, there was a gust of wind in western Washington this morning as a strong cold front passed around 7-8 am. Below is a radar image of Camano Island around 7:15 a.m. below, with a yellow to red arc-shaped front feature.
This feature is a high intensity narrow cold front rain band, and is associated with gusts of about 50 mph, rapid wind changes, and significant temperature drops. Models had it, but underestimated its power.
This morning’s maximum winds are shown below.55 miles per hour at SeaTac, 69 miles per hour at Bellingham, and more than 60 miles per hour on the coast. Unsurprisingly, about 100,000 customers lost power in the area.
Storm
But this is just a “warm-up” for the event tomorrow afternoon and evening.
Offshore, satellite imagery shows a large cloud feature over the northeastern Pacific, a feature of stronger storms.
The latest UW model forecast for sea level pressure (solid line) at 10 p.m. tonight shows a dramatic low center of 970 hPa off the south coast of Washington, with a very strong pressure gradient ( pressure changes with distance) south and west of the low.
This is a classic structure for mid-latitude tornadoes at sea. Then there will be a strong north-south pressure difference and strong winds from southern Oregon to the Gulf.
Twelve hours later (10 a.m. Tuesday), the depression made landfall south of Vancouver Island and a super-pressure band formed over the Oregon coast. Wind gusts of up to 60-80 mph and power outages are expected along the coast and in the Willamette Valley at this time.
But inland western Washington will be in turn. By 4 p.m. tomorrow, the depression will move into southern BC and a strong band of pressure will develop over the lowlands west of Washington, generating strong southerly winds with speeds of 50-65 mph. More power outages may occur, especially with saturated soils.
But the strong wind the joy did not end. As the lowland moves inland, a large east-west pressure differential will develop over the Juan of Fuca Strait, creating strong westerly winds that will cause problems for Whidbey Island and County Snohomish.
To illustrate, the forecast for gusts at 9pm tomorrow is shown below.
Just to be clear. This is not a Columbus Day storm. Or the 2006 New Year’s Eve storm Chanukah. But this is an important event and some will lose power. Please stay away from trees during the strongest winds in the afternoon and tomorrow evening.
We are now close enough to believe that a big hit will happen tomorrow. So make sure your battery is fresh and that your electronic device is fully charged.
