Snoqualmie Valley Winds At It Again Last Night – Storm Leaves Thousands Without Power

The Snoqualmie Valley winds kicked up again last night.  This time, though, the winds hit the whole Puget Sound region.  This morning there were about 150,000 homes in the dark.

The winds were caused by atmospheric pressure gradient differences again.  There was a low pressure area north of us and higher pressure to the south.  The  low pressure center really intensified yesterday afternoon which caused the winds to turn on like a hitting the switch on a hair dryer.  Different from last week’s winds were their direction of origin.  Yesterday’s winds came from the west / northwest.  Most damaging winds in the Snoqualmie Valley usually come from the east / southeast.

Power was lost for many Snoqualmie Ridge residents from 9:30PM last night until about 8AM this morning.  Not all neighborhoods were affected.  PSE reported the cause was a downed tree.  Cascade View ES  canceled school shortly before 8AM and then quickly re-opened when the lights popped on.  It was the only school in the district without power this morning.

Other Puget Sound areas did not fair so well.  At 7:30AM PSE reported that it had 76,000 customers still without power – and some could be without power until Thursday.  The most extensive damage and needed repair work is in Southeast King County near the Cascade foothills.  Those cities include Renton, Hobart, Puyallup, Black Diamond and Miramonte.  Tacoma was also hit hard.  This morning Tacoma Light had 20,000 homes without power and school was canceled.  Neighboring districts also closed school or started two hours late today.

The clean up and repair work begins as another storm barrels in tomorrow.  Some breezy weather is predicted, but nothing like last night.  Thursday another area of low pressure parks off shore.  This storm’s winds will draw in cold air from Canada.  Weekend highs are predicted to only reach the 30’s for Snoqualmie Valley.   And yes, the big “S” word made it into the forecast – snow in November.   Time to unhook your hoses and prepare for freezing weather.   Wasn’t it just 74 degrees two weeks ago?