Cold and dry is the forecast for the week throughout the North Olympic Peninsula, said Dennis D’Amico, meteorologist for the National Weather Service, as a chilly weekend neared its end.
A few flurries of snow fluttered throughout the Peninsula, with most of the precipitation concentrated in the east, D’Amico said Sunday.
“We had some snow — and I mean less than half an inch — in some places between Port Townsend and Indian Valley on [U.S. Highway] 101, but that is as far West as we saw it,” he said.
The rest of the Peninsula saw cold temperatures and a couple flurries, but nothing that was sticking.
“It has been really a fairly dry spell,” he said.
The West End broke a cold temperature record with a low on Saturday of 23 degrees — 1 degree lower than the previous record set in 1984.
On Sunday, the low had risen to 31 degrees.
And though Port Townsend, Sequim and Port Angeles all hovered around freezing for the lows on Sunday, they weren’t cold enough to break any records.
Port Townsend and Port Angeles’ lows were 32 degrees while Sequim was slightly higher at 35.
“None of those temperatures are surprising for this time of year,” D’Amico said.
“It was definitely cold there, but not record-setting cold by any means.”
Around the Peninsula, sustained winds were at about 30 miles per hour.
“We did have one report of sustained winds on a hill in Port Townsend at 37 miles per hour and gusts of about 45 miles per hour,” D’Amico said.
The week will continue to be chilly and dry, he said.
“Through most of the week, we are looking at lows of about 17 degrees, possibly dropping as low as 11 degrees, and highs around freezing throughout that whole area,” D’Amico said.
“We’re talking real chills.”
A major power outage affected about 600 Clallam County Public Utility District customers in SunLand area.
The power went out at about 7:30 a.m. and was restored in just a little more than an hour, said PUD spokesman Jeff Beaman.
The cause of the outage was wind blowing some trees into a line near Woodcock Road.
At about 6:30 p.m. Sunday, a power pole was teetering at the corner of Third and Pine streets in Port Angeles.
“That line is the main line to Nippon [Paper Industries],” said Port Angeles Public Works Director Glenn Cutler.
Crews were assessing the situation, and it was unclear how long the plant would be affected.
“We are in the process of switching them to their secondary line,” Cutler said at about 7:30 p.m.
“However, on their secondary line they will not have full power.
“So we think we might need to replace the pole, but are still assessing it.”
Cutler said it was likely that a couple of nearby families would be affected.
D’Amico said that warmer temperatures might be ahead next weekend.
“It is hard to tell because the system is too far out at this point,” he said.
“But if it continues (to get nearer), that is when we might see some real snow.”
It was unclear on Sunday night what caused the pole to teeter, but no trees had fallen on it.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
