Winds are subsiding in Seattle after a chaotic night, but tens of thousands are still without power.
The Seattle metropolitan area saw gusts of 45 mph Wednesday night while gusts in the Western Washington lowlands reached 60 mph. An atmospheric river brought blizzard conditions to the mountains and left 120,000 customers powerless at one point. A falling tree killed one person in Monroe.
Thursday morning is beginning with an end to the windstorm. Gusts around 25 to 30 mph will continue through most of the morning before subsiding by the afternoon, said National Weather Service meteorologist Melissa Gonzalez-Fuentes. Expect some rain showers too.
Over 30,000 customers were without power across Western Washington at 7 a.m. Thursday, according to Puget Sound Energy and poweroutage.us. About 600 customers served by the Seattle City Light were out of power.
Another system will stall over Seattle on Thursday and into Friday, bringing more widespread rain beginning Thursday evening, Gonzalez-Fuentes said.
But come Friday, the windiness will have passed, she said.
Snow will continue in the mountains, however. The passes should get up to 10 inches through Thursday and another 10 throughout Friday, Gonzalez-Fuentes said.
About 6 to 10 inches accumulated on the passes Wednesday. But a blizzard warning along the slopes of the Cascades and the Olympics has been canceled as the winds start to ease. The winter storm warning remains in effect through Saturday morning.
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