Major storm moving into Pacific Northwest

KONP ^

[djf]

Freepers from Oregon, Western Washington, Vancouver island: ALERT!!! Major storm forecast today, and it's not like yesterday was exactly a nice May day either. This could be the biggest of the year. If you have a thermos, make your coffee now! Widespread power outages predicted.

Winds expected to start very high on the coast this afternoon, moving into Puget Sound by the latter part of the evening and continuing very high until mid morning.

Batten down the hatches!

December 14th, 2006 - 6:02am

(Port Angeles) -- It could be a wild weather night for the North Olympic Peninsula. The National Weather Service says another storm is expected to bring very strong winds and rain to the state later today and continuing into tomorrow. Sustained winds of 40 miles per hour or more are forecast for both sides of the Cascades -- and the weather service says gusts could reach 80 or 90 miles per hour on the coast. Meteorologist Jay Albrecht with the Seattle National Weather Service office tells Newsradio 1450 KONP an intense low is expected to form today and move onto the North Olympic Peninsula sometime tonight -- possibly between 8 and 10 o'clock. He says computer models show once the low passes off to the northeast, there will be a very strong westerly surge through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, with 60 to 80 mile an hour winds possible over the water. Albrecht says the area he is worried about the most tonight is the west side of Whidbey Island, but all water-exposed areas could get hammered. Forecasters have a high wind watch in effect for all of Western Washington.

[djf]

Congratulations!

Like I said, though, if you have to drive, drive every half mile like it might be the last half mile you ever drove. Lots of reports of firs falling partly down and hanging on power lines.

I would be quite happy and surprised if my juice is on sooner than 24 hours, if it's still out this afternoon, gonna fire up the generator to plug in the fridge.

[2Jedismom]

We haven't heard from some of our west coast Hobbit Hole dwellers yet...near Olympia...

[djf]

Possibly powerless.

I get a busy signal when I dial my ISP, so I'm coming in through a corporate account.

And I'm running on a dialup laptop, instead of my local trusty wireless.

A million customers in western Washington without power.

I was just out helping do some road cleanup and there are still some places the power companies can't get to.

[airborne]

I hope it brings snow to PA for Christmas!

[djf]

I'da rather had it snow here!!

[little jeremiah]

Good morning to you!

;-)

[GretchenM]

We pretty much have it all here, from rain forest to desert, ocean to streams, and everything in between.

I'll put the rest in a post not addressed to you in case you have dial-up.

[GretchenM]

Eastern Washington desert

Puget Sound (inland) beach

Tacoma Narrows bridge (was closed during the height of this storm as the winds really blast down this channel)

The OLD Tacoma Narrows, a.k.a. "Galloping Gertie", displaying what high wind can do to bridges not built to specs

Eastern Washington

Palouse (rich farmland)

Orchards and orchards and orchards

I resist the temptation to go further.

[GretchenM]

Posts 207 and 208 show some of the beautiful variety of scenery in Washington State.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1753412/posts?page=208#208
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1753412/posts?page=207#207

[onyx]

You can't imagine how much I am enjoying the pics of your state that you've posted!

[Global2010]

Hwy 18 2 the north coast from me was shut down again due to trees toppling like toothpicks and thank God we have decision makers to do so because it saves lives.

My first employee came in and she was out of heat ect...but her hubby was on the job and she figured with the medical care needs for KV this would be one warm place, with all the hotel doodles.... she was right...I am not a coffee person but I had all the fresh juice and amenities.

I am just going to continue sending up Prayers for all.

I got my Catholic Ping from Salvation so all is good in that neck of the woods.

Seattle (one of our vendors) is still without phone lines...big Medical corp...but thank goodness for home town folk/medical that no wrinkles are in the works...
Prayers up for those not used to being disabled and self sufficiant. God Thank You for giving us 27yrs of knowledge.

[Global2010]

Our Seattle Vendors (corp) were up at 8am and then lost all phone lines by 10.

Hope that helps...freezing rain?
We had 1/2 pea size hail hit us around that time on the Central Oregon Coast.

Can somebody please let the new Congress and Al Gore know that they need to El Nino San Diego weather up here for the next 30yrs? I mean they do control/ invent after all. /bad sarcasm

[Global2010]

Hi Ya Back...

I am thinking about a new tag line..."the only one I butter Popcorn for is God"

Boy did I call his name (not totally in vain) a whole lotta times last night to protect Lincoln County and Mr. KV

[Global2010]

Please tempt the asphalt jungle folks from Cali.

No easy road access. Yes this is rugged country and btw any word (no cable here) on the 3 boyz in trouble at the 10,000 ft Mt mark yet..
Prayers up for those lil rascels.

[GretchenM]

any word (no cable here) on the 3 boyz in trouble at the 10,000 ft Mt mark yet..

Latest I heard (this AM) is that the guys left a note at a ranger station (very encouraging news) and that the searchers were going to head for a cave in that area. The note listed the supplies they had with them, and the list was heartening to the searchers.

[GretchenM]

Cool! =) It is just over-the-top beautiful here. I didn't even include sweeping shots of the two massive mountain ranges -- just bits of them here and there. I'm nestled in between the Cascades on the east and the Olympics on the west, with Puget Sound between them. For people who love the outdoors, this is like paradise: just pick your sport. If you can handle the earthquakes and the rain, it's usually pretty moderate weather. Right now, we're having one of those "Don't see an autumn like this very often" years. We've just been hammered with storms this time around.

I lost my electricity during the night but it's back on. We had over 60 mph winds last night.

[GretchenM]

Check out this one. It's taken across Possession Sound (NE of Puget Sound) facing east with the Cascade Mountains in the background. Living amidst this grandeur makes me realize how little I am.

And this one, taken in June 2006, over Spokane, WA, shows a very rare celestial event, which is called something like circum-horizon. This is not photoshopped; I took it off a local news station web site.

An old tunnel in the Snohomish area.

[silent_jonny]

Sheesh, Gretchen--what an ugly state you live in /sarc ;)

Seriously though, this would be my idea of Heaven ... wow.

[GretchenM]

Yeah, it's pretty spare and barren out here. (cough) One would do well to take up reading or collecting old coins in order to really have a life in a place like this. (cough cough)

The wonderful thing about that photo you chose as close to heaven -- you don't even have to hike very far in some parts of the Olympics to get to such places. You may have to walk across some pretty rustic "bridges" at times (like a log felled over a stream, no handrails) for some of them, but what the heck, that's part of the adventure. Most of the mountain trails do have good bridges though.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

Nice stuff!