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Original Story
The forecast for the expected windstorm due to arrive late this afternoon and last through the evening has been updated as the front makes its way up the Washington coastline.
Early this morning the forecasters backed off of their estimates of gusts up to 70mph and reduced that to 60mph in expectation that the low pressure would not be as low as expected. This afternoon they are saying that the low pressure readings by offshore buoys have been lower than expected. This typically results in higher wind speeds.
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Click for more informationThe storm is moving along at a faster pace as well which means the high winds are expect to arrive a couple hours earlier and last for a shorter period of time, unlike Thursday’s windstorm which hammered the Ferndale area for several hours. Current estimates have high winds arriving after 3pm and peaking around 5pm.
The circular motion around the front (see radar image) gives the appearance of a hurricane although the storm is not expected to behave like one.
The eastern edge of the circular formation has been getting hit by high winds as the front moved up the coast. Gusts up to 76mph have been reported at Moclips, north of Aberdeen on the Washington Coast. About 2pm today, Grays Harbor PUD reported over 2,000 without power. Shortly after 2pm, Boeing Field in south Seattle reported gusts over 50mph and Seattle City Light reported over 35 thousand without power within the Seattle city limits. Puget Sound Energy is reporting 40,000 without power and their online outage mapping system is currently not functioning.
There were a few different paths the storm could follow according to forecast models this morning. The path it has been following is shown as yellow in the graphic below and will result in higher winds for the Ferndale and surrounding areas as compared to the more southern and eastern tracks it could have taken.
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Click for more informationwater vapor image at 5 am, plus forecast track, position, and central pressure of the low from several models. #wawx pic.twitter.com/Ji5GbK4V6Y
— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) March 13, 2016