Wind, rain lash unusually warm Seattle
SEATTLE – Santa probably figured there wouldn’t be much snow in the Puget Sound area over the holiday weekend – he’s made the trip before.
But he may have doffed his coat and worked in shirt sleeves when he hit record high temperatures in the Seattle area.
Then there was the wind. Power was out for tens of thousands of homes, sending utility crews out into drenching rain.
“It started for us about 5:30 in the morning,” said Lynn Carlson, spokeswoman for Puget Sound Energy.
“At one time we had 20,000 customers scattered from Bellingham to Olympia without power. The most, as many as 8,000, were in Kitsap County.”
Most outages were small, caused by wind or branches pulling down power lines.
In West Seattle, two condominiums were evacuated before dawn Sunday due to minor flooding.
Wind gusts of 38 mph were measured Sunday morning, said meteorologist Johnny Burg with the National Weather Service office in Seattle.
Most of the power outages were restored by the end of the day. Gusts Monday were down around 20 mph in the Seattle. Coastal communities were bracing for gusts up to 40 mph early today.
The high Saturday, Christmas Eve, was a record 62 degrees in Seattle, well above the old 55-degree record set in 1950. Sunday’s high in Seattle was 58.
Tacoma’s high Saturday was 63, tying a 22-year-old record.
It wasn’t a good weekend for skiers and snowboarders.
High temperatures and steady rain forced a weekend closure of the ski area at Stevens Pass.
The Summit at Snoqualmie and Crystal Mountain were both open through the weekend despite rain and above-freezing temperatures.
Burg said freezing levels are expected to drop to 2,000 feet by Friday, when snowfall is likely.
Heavy rain on the west side of the state raised flood concerns over the weekend, but only two rivers swelled over their banks: the Satsop briefly Sunday morning, and the Skokomish, which was still under a flood warning Monday.
The 0.91 inches of rain Saturday in the Seattle area was also a record – the old one, of 0.33 inches, was set just two years earlier.
On Sunday, Seattle got a record 0.96 inches of rain, breaking the old record of 0.79 set in 1998. The 55-degree high also was a record, 3 degrees above the old mark of 52 degrees set in 2002.
Forecasters said this week will bring more of the same.
“We will see high temperatures in the 40s this week and a chance of precipitation each day,” Burg said. “But we could possibly see significant precipitation on Tuesday, which could raise river levels enough to bring flood watches to the area.”
In West Seattle, two condominiums were evacuated Sunday due to minor flooding. Crews believe the downpour overwhelmed a 1.2 million-gallon retaining pond, says Andy Ryan, a spokesman for Seattle Public Utilities. The overflow sent both rain- and sewage water flooding into the street and the Village Square Condominiums.
Seattle firefighters were called about 4 a.m. Sunday to help deal with the flooding, spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick said. Seven adults and one child were evacuated and local Red Cross volunteers helped them out. A Metro bus served as a temporary shelter.
At one point, the system was so full that water poured out of manhole covers.
Heavy rain also was blamed for a slide Sunday that sent mud onto a section of Juanita Drive between Northeast 116th Place and 86th Avenue Northeast, forcing King County road crews to close both lanes of traffic.
It was uncertain when the road would reopen.
“That hillside has to dry out a little bit so we can check for any additional stability problems,” spokeswoman Rochelle Ogershok said Monday. Crews will be assessing the situation today, she said.