Major Windstorm

This event is living up to the model predictions I showed you last night.  This is strongest wind event since last December, and is worsened by the substantial amounts of leaves on

 Sammamish Saturday Morning

the trees and the growth during the past year.   Roughly 100,000 people are out of power right now:  here is the Seattle City Light outage map.   Worse conditions are north of the city.

 I just drove home after attempting to some shopping.  Costco on Aurora and QFC at Northgate both lost power and were on generators.  Most of my travel was in areas without power.   Returning home I caught a glimpse of Lake Washington. Wow.  Lots of big whitecaps.  Here is the lastest shot of the I90 bridge...big waves breaking over the structure.  520 bridge was closed.

 Puget Sound Energy does not have a web map or any information other than some tweets.  They need to do better.

Here are the max gusts for the 24-h ending at 11 AM.  I always think as 40 mph as being the magic number...above that speed and loads of damage and power outages occur. You see than many station around Puget Sound, NW Washington, and the coast achieved this speed.  Some locations got above 50 mph.

Ready to be impressed?  Here are the gusts at West Point, which you know extends out over Puget Sound from Discovery Park.  Peak of 52 knots or 60 mph.   That is serious wind.

We have wind sensosr on some Washington State ferries.    Consider the ride this morning between Kingston and Edmonds at 8:47 AM....BEFORE conditions were worst.  46 knots or 53 mph.  That must have been quite an adventure.

The southerly winds over Puget Sound have peaked and will now subside.  We are now ready for stage II of this event:  the eastward surge of strong winds down the Strait. Folks on central and northern Whidbey should get ready for this. Now.

And then stage III: snow in the mountains.  Cooler air is already starting to flood in aloft.

Announcement:  Ivar's Mukilteo Landing restaurant (my favorite weather-themed eating establishment) will have a special dinner and a presentation (by me) to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the on storm that destroyed the restaurant in 2003.  It will take place next Thursday, November 7.  More information here.  Limited to 40 people.

Seattle Residents:   Please consider voting for Sue Peters for School Board. Check out my previous blog for more information.  Corporate ed interests, pushing charter schools, excessive testing, strict control of teachers, and heavy use of computerized instruction are pushing their own candidate, backing by hundreds of thousands of dollars from wealthy donors and Pacs.  Sue Peters will be a strong, experienced, and articulate voice on the school board....and she supports good math education.  If you vote for only one race, please vote on this one.