PNW December 2022 - Part II

[Ice_is_Everywhere]

Power came back after almost 3 hours.

[TacomaWx]

It got fairly windy but didn’t lose power here. 54/45 today so far with 0.17” of rain. 

[markjb]

Think we’re about done here in the tacoma area…. Seems to be dying down pretty good now … 26 mph highest gust IMBY … kind of weak

[RentonHill]

3 minutes ago, TacomaWx said:

It got fairly windy but didn’t lose power here. 54/45 today so far with 0.17” of rain. 

Wow that’s like…no rain at all

[snow_wizard]

Pretty chilly GEFS over the next week with 850s below normal most of the time.

[TigerWoodsLibido]

Peak gust of 43mph. But a long-duration wind event with lots of 30mph+ gusts for about 18 hours.

[snow_wizard]

Dare I say January might actually start out below normal? 

[snow_wizard]

1 minute ago, TigerWoodsLibido said:

Peak gust of 43mph. But a long-duration wind event with lots of 30mph+ gusts for about 18 hours.

That's pretty solid.

[HuskyMaestro]

It's calmed down now and the lights never flickered during this whole event. Either Fife/Tacoma really upped their utilities (which would be absolutely astounding), or the windstorm flopped for the immediate area. There were some insanely strong gusts too for 10 minutes so it's impressive the power didn't go out.

[snow_wizard]

GFS meteograms go for an average of 37.0 for SEA for Jan 1-6.  Pretty good by recent standards.  

[snow_wizard]

6 minutes ago, HuskyMaestro said:

It's calmed down now and the lights never flickered during this whole event. Either Fife/Tacoma really upped their utilities (which would be absolutely astounding), or the windstorm flopped for the immediate area. There were some insanely strong gusts too for 10 minutes so it's impressive the power didn't go out.

We had flickers and one time it went out for 30 seconds or so.  It never even got that windy here, but it must have been close.

[markjb]

1 hour ago, SouthHillFrosty said:

POTENTIAL 

Hey… kind of off storm topic… you got that tempest up and running yet ??? I’ve had mine for about six weeks now, I think you and I are the only two of our group that has one. 

[CliffMassYelledAtMe]

Looks like North Bend, Snoqualmie, and Preston were hit pretty hard. Otherwise looks pretty spotty in terms of outages. 

[SouthHillFrosty]

5 minutes ago, markjb said:

Hey… kind of off storm topic… you got that tempest up and running yet ??? I’ve had mine for about six weeks now, I think you and I are the only two of our group that has one. 

Not yet! I will get it set up this week! How do U like yours so far?

[markjb]

3 minutes ago, SouthHillFrosty said:

Not yet! I will get it set up this week! How do U like yours so far?

So far I really like it … everything seems to be very accurate. The only thing that the jury is still out on is wind  gust. After this storm tonight my highest gust registered was only 26 mph ?? Sure seemed stronger than that but not sure?? My unit is about 3 ft above the highest peak on my roof .. 30 ft up … with an unobstructed south west view .. so still not sure about wind readings.. but without something to gage it against ….maybe my perception of how hard it’s blowing is just wrong ????

[NWbyNW]

Watching a local tv news channel on one screen and the first ten minutes have been nothing about the wind storm.  They've only been talking about the King Tides and all the flooding it has done.  I guess they consider the storm a bust in their eyes since this particular channel was promoting it all day yesterday and this morning and now nothing before their first commercial. 

[MV_snow]

38 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

We had flickers and one time it went out for 30 seconds or so.  It never even got that windy here, but it must have been close.

A little windy in the 8-9 PM hour but nothing big. The east winds we had with the ice storm last week were far more impressive and lasted for a full day. This one was a localized event for the Sound.

[SouthHillFrosty]

15 minutes ago, markjb said:

So far I really like it … everything seems to be very accurate. The only thing that the jury is still out on is wind  gust. After this storm tonight my highest gust registered was only 26 mph ?? Sure seemed stronger than that but not sure?? My unit is about 3 ft above the highest peak on my roof .. 30 ft up … with an unobstructed south west view .. so still not sure about wind readings.. but without something to gage it against ….maybe my perception of how hard it’s blowing is just wrong ????

Ah that is good to know…. I will keep an eye out on that once it is set up and operational! Thanks for the info.

[NWbyNW]

Precip in the past 24hrs...

2.43'' in Forks.

1.56'' of rain in Everett.

1.50'' in Hoquiam!

.57'' of rain in Seattle.

Soggy!

Snow levels are also dropping to pass levels.

[markjb]

6 minutes ago, Eujunga said:

Don't know if the Tempest is a wireless station, but most wireless stations share a common issue caused by transmitting a packet of data only once every few seconds. Wind gusts often report too low because the actual peak gust rarely coincides exactly with the moment the data is transmitted.

Yes… wireless, but updates pretty fast.. every 3 seconds. 

[NWbyNW]

The wind storm was an absolute nothing burger for the Puget Sound as said earlier in the day.  We can count that as a blessing, especially for all the coastal areas of the Puget Sound which are dealing with King Tides right now.

It was impressive to watch and view but of course the downsides are the damage.  I hope the damage and outages along the coast and in Oregon is dealt with quickly.  It was amazing to watch it's build up.  It was not-nothing for that region.  Seeing the videos and images of the storm making landfall was just a reminder of how powerful nature is.

Good news is, PGE, the largest power authority in Oregon, has seen their total number of customers effected drop from over 100,000 now dip to 64,000!  Let's see it be zero soon! 

[CliffMassYelledAtMe]

[NWbyNW]

Strong winds could return with the next few rounds of storms.  First on Thursday, the Oregon Coast, especially the southend, could see strong wind gusts.  

The next system on Friday, we have a chance of strong wind gusts blowing the Washington Coast and moving in through the Chehalis Gap.  It could effect the South Sound.  But there are still a ways out there.  

[Skagit Weather]

25 minutes ago, markjb said:

So far I really like it … everything seems to be very accurate. The only thing that the jury is still out on is wind  gust. After this storm tonight my highest gust registered was only 26 mph ?? Sure seemed stronger than that but not sure?? My unit is about 3 ft above the highest peak on my roof .. 30 ft up … with an unobstructed south west view .. so still not sure about wind readings.. but without something to gage it against ….maybe my perception of how hard it’s blowing is just wrong ????

It's probably a combination of the two. As Eujunga noted, the packet (noncontinuous) nature of the personal weather station is one reason they can read slightly low or miss the highest gusts. But it's also true that most people's perceptions of wind is wildly wrong. In my experience people usually overestimate wind gusts by 50-100% so the wind will be gusting to 30 mph and they'll estimate that it's 45-50+ mph. 26 mph is a decent gust to register on a PWS and when it hits my house it certainly sounds impressive.

[CliffMassYelledAtMe]

[NWbyNW]

5 hours ago, NWbyNW said:

It's not gonna be nearly as much as what people were leading on to here and on the news.  We'll see some 30-40mph gusts in the south sound (Tacoma area) and not much else.  Chehalis Gap influenced areas will see stronger of course.  NWS was right to wait on putting those advisories and strong wind warnings out because this system was so interlaced with various complexities. 

Strongest winds are on the coast and the eastern portions of our respective states.  Puget Sound will not amount to much in comparison even to what Portland got. 

 

 

NWS had a tough job and held off longer than anyone.  Thanks for posting those tweets above @CliffMassYelledAtMe! 

[Cloud]

We saw some strong localized wind gusts, but overall this was a busted forecast for up here. Came nowhere close to a HWW, a wind advisory at best. Another tough one at the NWS. 

[TigerWoodsLibido]

Heavy rain now and the occasional gust.

[TigerWoodsLibido]

1.72" and counting for the day. Wettest day in Eugene/Springfield since Jan 3 of 2022.

[snow_wizard]

It appears the models are beginning to back off of the retrogression / retracting Pacific Jet scenario.  Tonight's ECMWF run is actually trying to throw up a mid North Pacific block at the end of the run.  A lot to be sorted out still.

[Deweydog]

1 minute ago, snow_wizard said:

It appears the models are beginning to back off of the retrogression / retracting Pacific Jet scenario.  Tonight's ECMWF run is actually trying to throw up a mid North Pacific block at the end of the run.  A lot to be sorted out still.

The Pacific is open for business and producing at pre-pandemic levels for the foreseeable future. Starting to feel once again like it’s gonna take a significant kick to get it to recoil. 

[snow_wizard]

34 minutes ago, CliffMassYelledAtMe said:

I love how he says that mid-level feature was not at all typical.  I said from the start this whole thing had an odd look to it.  The big question this year is what has actually been normal.

[snow_wizard]

Just now, Deweydog said:

The Pacific is open for business and producing at pre-pandemic levels for the foreseeable future. Starting to feel once again like it’s gonna take a significant kick to get it to recoil. 

It will be interesting to see what path it takes in the process of slowing down again.  As we all know things can turn on a dime so who knows.

[xfkirsten]

I charged my phone, Kindle, SteamDeck, and extra power brick... so naturally we barely seemed to get a breeze here. At least I got caught up on Doom Patrol!

[NWbyNW]

2 minutes ago, xfkirsten said:

I charged my phone, Kindle, SteamDeck, and extra power brick... so naturally we barely seemed to get a breeze here. At least I got caught up on Doom Patrol!

I charged my phone and tablet as well.  Hey, at least they are all charged and ready to go.  Always better to be prepared.

[snow_wizard]

On the day 10 surface pressure map you can see the door has been closed around the Date Line, but that's still very speculative obviously.

[ShawniganLake]

32 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

It will be interesting to see what path it takes in the process of slowing down again.  As we all know things can turn on a dime so who knows.

There’s a decent chance that the best this winter has to offer is already behind us. 

[jcmcgaffey]

1 hour ago, NWbyNW said:

Precip in the past 24hrs...

2.43'' in Forks.

1.56'' of rain in Everett.

1.50'' in Hoquiam!

.57'' of rain in Seattle.

Soggy!

Snow levels are also dropping to pass levels.

I was surprised the difference as north seattle was over an inch of rain today while the south side of the city looked to only get a little more than a 1/2”. 

[NWbyNW]

8 minutes ago, jcmcgaffey said:

I was surprised the difference as north seattle was over an inch of rain today while the south side of the city looked to only get a little more than a 1/2”. 

The differences in such short distances was pretty shocking!  

[NWbyNW]

Power Outage Updates

Oregon

PGE Outage numbers have dropped again, from 65k to 52,800!  It keeps shrinking.  The majority of the populace without power is still centrally around Portland and the suburbs directly east and west of the city.

Statewide, Oregon is around 90,000 without power.  The majority of outages outside of the Portland metro counties are Clatsop, Tillamook, Linn, Coos, and Josephine Counties.

Washington

PSE outages are also dipping, now down to 16,500.  A large swath or area around Snoqualmie is out, including a large area around Yelm.  The northern area of Vashon Island is seeing outages and the isolated island of Guemes Island is also seeing an outage.  Hopefully that one gets fixed for the residents of this remote dot. 

Statewide, Washington has 27,000 without power, and the number is dropping.   Pierce County and Thurston County have fixed a majority of their outages.  The majority are in King County and Clark County now. Skagit County is now reporting some outages as well, but under a 1,000. 

British Columbia has outages mostly on Vancouver Island, but thankfully, the population mostly doesn't live facing the open waters of the Pacific.  Most of the outages are around Victoria, west of Victoria, and a smaller number in Vancouver's metro. At least for the outages around Vancouver, BC Hydro expects power to be back by 4:30am. It is also highly possible Port Renfrew is without power, but BC Hydro isn't certain. 

California has roughly 14,000 without power in Northern California and this number has remained constant all day.  It might be related to the earthquake that shook Humbolt County earlier last week.  Shocking if they still haven't got power working for most yet.