Mother Nature is continuing to check off a laundry list of winter weather conditions — including strong winds and heavy mountain snow — that are “on the wild side, even for Western Washington,” the National Weather Service said.
Ahead of more chilly temperatures, meteorologists on Wednesday are continuing to track several weather models and incoming systems with different estimations of how much snow the lowlands may receive through the weekend.
The system responsible for the 14 weather-service watches, warnings and advisories that were active on Tuesday across Western Washington slammed into the coast Monday evening, spreading inland overnight.
Southerly winds increased, gusting up to 50 mph and leaving tens of thousands without power in the Seattle area Tuesday.
Crews have since made progress bringing back electricity to many.
As of 6:20 a.m. Wednesday, 3,400 Puget Sound Energy and 427 Seattle City Light customers were without power.
Wind gusts continued throughout the day Tuesday, leading the Washington State Department of Transportation to cancel some ferry sailings between Port Townsend and Coupeville. It hurled branches and in some cases entire trees on roads, cars and homes, as well as on an assisted living facility.
Meanwhile, in the mountains, “an incredible amount of snow” was forecast to fall through Wednesday, thanks to the system that has pushed eastward, the weather service said.
Webcams at Snoqualmie and Stevens passes showed near-whiteout conditions around 4 a.m. Tuesday, which was shortly after the winter storm warning converted to a blizzard warning an hour earlier than expected. (Snoqualmie Pass traffic cameras were down later that morning because of a power outage.)
On Tuesday, winds gusting as high as 65 mph and an additional 2 to 3 feet of snow above 2,000 feet made periods of whiteout and near-zero visibility, according to the weather service.
WSDOT closed parts of highways 2 and 97, through Stevens and Blewett passes, as the blizzard pummeled the Cascades.
Washington Emergency Management urged people to avoid traveling through mountain passes.
Blizzard warnings are rare in Western Washington — the last one was in 2012 — and they require a combination of blowing snow, 35+ mph winds and quarter-mile visibility for three hours or more, according to the weather service.
Continuing our tour of weather hazards across Western Washington, we arrive at the coast, where another cycle of king tides arrived on Tuesday. Low pressure, strong onshore winds and large swells (predicted to be up to 28 feet with large breaking waves of 15 to 30 feet) exacerbated the risk of coastal flooding, the weather service said.
As we move through the week, meteorologists are tracking a rush of cold Canadian air bearing down on the region from the north, but “much, much uncertainty must be expressed in the evolution of the long term forecast,” the weather service said.
However, confidence is rising that temperatures will fall well below average heading into the weekend — overnight lows sinking below freezing are possible, while highs will struggle to crest 32 degrees.
Now, how much moisture will be around?
“That is the million-dollar question,” the weather service said.
As of Tuesday, there was a 40% to 60% chance of 2 inches or more of snowfall for much of the lowlands, including Seattle, starting Friday.
There was a 30% to 40% chance that snowfall could exceed 4 inches across most of the lowlands.
Stay tuned!
Seattle Times staff reporter Isabella Breda contributed to this story.
The opinions expressed in reader comments are those of the author only and do not reflect the opinions of The Seattle Times.