PORT ANGELES — The first major storm of the winter has churned up the surf, knocked down branches and dumped buckets of rain on Clallam County.
Winds gusted to 48 mph in Forks, 54 at Tatoosh Island and 73 at Hurricane Ridge on Thursday.
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Management Division issued a surf advisory for a 25-foot ocean swell combined with significant high tides.
The weather was calm, if rainy, in Port Angeles and Sequim, thanks to the Olympic Mountains.
Johnny Berg, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Seattle, said the mountains blocked energy from the storm that came in from the south.
“It kind of blunts out the wind a bit,” Berg said.
Wind and rain will persist today, although it won’t be as rainy or as blustery as Thursday.
Nearly a foot of snow was forecast for the Olympic Mountains for Thursday night into this morning. Another 10 to 20 inches of snow was forecast for tonight, Berg said.
A wind and weather advisory will be effect through 10 p.m. today.
Jamye Wisecup, program coordinator for the county’s emergency management division, said the 25-foot swell will dissipate as it enters the Strait of Juan de Fuca,
However, the abnormally large surf combined with the high tide could push debris into roadways close to the shore, Wisecup said.
In downtown Sekiu, the big swell and 8-foot high tide pushed water close to the main road Thursday afternoon.
Another 8-foot high tide will occur on the West End at about 3 p.m. today.
Wisecup said the swell has an unusually long lag time — about 16 seconds — meaning the surf is more dangerous than it looks.
The county emergency management division issued a prepared statement saying the swell “could pose a problem for even the larger ocean going vessels.”
Trees hold up
Meanwhile, most of the trees and limbs near power lines held up in the wind in Clallam County.
Jeff Beaman, Clallam County Public Utilities District spokesman, said a brief outage occurred near Lake Pleasant, affecting about a dozen customers until noon.
“There are individual situations here and there but it’s not affecting a large number of people,” Beaman said.
Ross Tyler, Clallam County engineer, said a fallen tree that blocked Mina Smith Road near Forks was cleared out of the way by noon.
“Right now they’ve got pretty high winds,” Tyler said of the West End.
“The winds are expected to peak out at about 50 [mph], so we’re kind of expecting to have to do some cleanup tomorrow.”
The east side of the county was getting rain with no significant wind, Tyler added.
No damage in park
Barb Maynes, Olympic National Park spokeswoman, reported no damage in the park.
“There have been just a couple of real small trees come down — nothing particularly earth-shattering,” Maynes said.
Hurricane Ridge Road was closed on Thursday because of the weather and repairs.
With the main weather station at the ridge reported a peak gust of 73 mph, a 105 mph gust was reported at another weather station further to the west at 3 p.m., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Olympic National Park has a 24-hour hot-line for road and weather conditions at Hurricane Ridge at 360- 565-3131.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.