Hurricane Force Winds Hit the Region

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Well, if heavy rain was not enough, hurricane-force winds--stronger than the winds during Hurricane Sandy--hit our coastal areas today.

Several sites had wind gusts above 100 mph, including 114 mph at Naselle Ridge on the southwest Washington Coast (sustained winds reached 77 mph).

Or 111 mph at nearby Abernathy Mountain.  Both of these sites are at roughly 2000 ft.

But even sites near sea level got blasted.  Much of the southwest Washington coast and Oregon coast had wind gusts to 60-80 mph with extensive power outages and damage.

A trucker decided to cross the Columbia River bridge near Astoria near the peak of the wind event (around 10 AM this morning)....and he didn't make it:


Some other impressive reports from the NWS Local Storm Report system included:
1102 PM NON-TSTM WND GST PACIFIC CITY 45.20N 123.96W11/18/2012 M 75.00 MPH TILLAMOOK OR MESONET
1232 AM NON-TSTM WND GST NEWPORT 44.63N 124.05W11/19/2012 M 80.00 MPH LINCOLN OR MESONET
1249 AM NON-TSTM WND GST YAQUINA HEAD 44.67N 124.07W11/19/2012 M 98.00 MPH LINCOLN OR MESONET
0850 AM NON-TSTM WND GST LINCOLN CITY 44.97N 124.01W11/19/2012 M 85.00 MPH LINCOLN OR MESONET
0855 AM NON-TSTM WND GST GARIBALDI 45.56N 123.91W11/19/2012 M 84.00 MPH TILLAMOOK OR MESONET
Many trees are down--some examples from the Astoria newspaper:

Want to see an amazing video on the Columbia River's South Jetty?  Click on the image:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=e7HX3J2ENYY

 The high resolution models suggested a significant wind event, although they underplayed the intensity and northern extent.  Here is the wind gust forecast from Sunday morning for 7 AM this morning.  Some 70 kt winds.  The reason the model underplayed the event was an inability to correctly simulate a small scale low center that moved towards the central WA coast.  The Langley radar showed it in real time, though.

Now the good news.  After two modest systems pass through tomorrow and Wednesday, Thanksgiving Day looks fairly dry.  And the next system on Friday/Saturday has weakened compared to major event predicted a few days ago.  No big snowstorms this week, but enough more to allow Baker and Crystal to open.