A high-wind watch, along with plenty of rain but no snow, is in effect for tonight through Thanksgiving Day in Clallam and Jefferson counties, the National Weather Service said.
The North Olympic Peninsula was spared the ravages of high winds and flood threats that hit other parts of the Puget Sound region Monday night and Tuesday morning.
During that period, about a half-inch of rain was measured in Port Angeles, while 2 inches fell at the Quillayute Airport near Forks.
Eight to 10 inches of snow fell at Hurricane Ridge.
Rain-saturated winds that gusted to more than 50 mph shortly after midnight on Clallam County’s West End on Tuesday abated later that morning, Weather Service meteorologist Johnny Burg said.
He compared that with the 70-mph gusts experienced in the Bellingham area.
Winds hit 59 mph at Quillayute Airport and 51 in Forks, where former Mayor Nedra Reed said she woke up Tuesday morning to potted plants felled by wind and strewn across her patio.
“It was blowing strong enough to rattle the garage doors,” Reed said.
“Here in Forks, we’re used to the winter storms,” she said.
“Unless the power is off, we really don’t pay attention to it.”
Beginning tonight, gusts could reach up to 60 mph in non-mountainous areas of Clallam and Jefferson counties, with sustained speeds of 50 mph in the lowlands, the Weather Service said.
Wind blasts of up to 80 mph above the 2,000-foot level are predicted for the Olympic Mountains.
Burg said up to an inch of rain could fall in Port Angeles and Port Townsend on Thursday.
Thanksgiving Day wet
“Thursday looks to be what I would say wet,” Burg said.
“We’ve got another system coming through on Thanksgiving Day.”
West End beach strollers should be careful walking the beach, advised Jamye Wisecup, Clallam County emergency management coordinator.
“The debris kicking around can be pretty nasty with the wind and the tide,” she said.
No flooding was reported on the Peninsula on Monday night and during the early morning hours Tuesday, emergency management coordinators for the counties said Tuesday.
There were “spotty outages” reported in Port Ludlow and Gardiner in Jefferson County, said Bob Hamlin, the county’s emergency management coordinator.
No outages were reported in Clallam County late Monday and early Tuesday, Wisecup said.
But 1,200 Grays Harbor Public Utility District customers lost power, and about 10,000 Puget Sound Energy customers were without power in Whatcom, Skagit and Island counties.
‘Rain shadow’
The Peninsula’s stored “rain shadow” may have helped brunt the storm’s impact on Clallam and Jefferson counties, Burg said, referring to the inch of snow an hour that fell on Mount Baker over a 24-hour period; Interstate 90 was closed intermittently at Snoqualmie Pass for avalanche control.
The Weather Service had been unsure about the impact of removing the Elwha Dam and the subsequent release of the Elwha River, but no flooding was reported as the newly bulked-up Elwha River levee continued to protect the Lower Elwha Klallam tribal reservation west of Port Angeles.
“New, higher levels won’t start happening until after the sediment starts moving down the river,” sad Robert Elofson, the tribe’s river restoration director.
“I don’t think we have anything to worry about having to sandbag the levee.”
By contrast, the flood watch on Mason County’s Skokomish River, which empties into the Hood Canal, was upgraded by Tuesday to a flood warning.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
