UTILITY CREWS ARE bracing for the third, and potentially the most severe, storm of the week today, churning its way from the Pacific Ocean to the North Olympic Peninsula.
Today’s storm — which is now not expected to arrive until the late afternoon — may produce sustained winds of 35 to 45 mph, and gusts up to 75 mph, along the coast, weather forecasters said.
One wind gust from Wednesday’s storm was clocked at 71 mph at Cape Flattery near Neah Bay.
The most severe winds from today’s storm could come in the evening, forecasters said.
Coastal areas of the Peninsula could get as much as 3 inches of rain.
Big winds and saturated soils can make it easier for trees to tip over onto power lines, creating more power outages and blocking highways across the Peninsula
We’re in a ‘state of emergency’
Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency in Clallam, Jefferson and three other counties Wednesday to help with emergency repairs to roads damaged in recent storms.
The proclamation allows the state Transportation Department to seek federal money for roadway damage that occurred between Nov. 25 and Dec. 1.
The declaration also covers King, Skagit and Whatcom counties.
While this week has been considerably wet, the National Weather and Climate Center reported last week that precipitation in Washington has been below normal for the month, resulting in a large snowpack deficit in the Cascades and Olympics.
Sunbreaks and a few showers are forecast for Friday.
Both weekend days are looking dry with partly sunny skies and highs in the upper 40s.
Light showers return for next week, but the weather pattern overall remains mild with mountain snow looking skimpy for now.
It’s been warm!
High winds and heavy rains are expected this time of year.
The thing that made Wednesday’s storm unique was the warmth.
Daytime temperatures were in the mid- to high-50s Wednesday across the North Olympic Peninsula, and the mercury climbed into the 60s in the Puget Sound region and hit a record 66 at Sea-Tac Airport, the National Weather Service reported.
That’s a record for any December day going back to 1945 when record-keeping began at the airport, said meteorologist Art Gaebel at the weather service office in Seattle.
The warmth if a byproduct of the tropical weather system that is bringing the wind and rain to the whole West Coast, he said.
“How do we get so warm without a streak of sunshine or even peek of blue sky? Blame HawaiI,” says Scott Sistek, a Port Angeles native and meteorologist at KOMO News in Seattle.
“A very strong and consistent pattern this week has the jet stream steering a plume of tropical moisture from near Hawaii all the way across the Pacific Ocean and into the Pacific Coast.
“We colloquially call this a “Pineapple Express” due to its Hawaiian origins but the more technical term is called an ‘atmospheric river.’
” . . . So that not only [it] brings the rain, but much warmer air. On Wednesday morning as a storm riding the wave moved into our region, the storm’s warm front brought up a surge of even warmer air from the south, pushing temperatures well into the 60s [in Seattle] — no sun required.”
