Hold on to your inflatable reindeer. Wind knocks out power to thousands in South Sound
The South Sound woke up to windy skies, deflated yard Santas and dark homes Saturday morning as high winds blew through the area.
As of 9:30 a.m., Puget Sound Energy had 62,733 customers without power, Key Peninsula Light Company listed just over 2,000 outages and Tacoma Public Utilities was reporting 63 customers in the dark.
The wind came in from the south, first hitting Olympia, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Dustin Guy. A 56-mile-per-hour gust hit the Olympia airport just after 5 a.m., he said.
A 54-mile-per-hour gust slammed the Tacoma Narrows Airport at 6:40 a.m., Guy said. Gusts of more than 50 miles per hour were still hitting the airport after 9 a.m. with sustained speeds of 30 miles per hour.
Winds should die down Saturday afternoon, he said. Rain showers will come and go.
“It could be briefly heavy, but really that’s not going to be a huge factor today, just on and off,” Guy said.
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Sunday will offer the region a chance to dry out and get its lights back on.
“That’s the good news,” Guy said. “Tomorrow looks considerably quieter than today. The winds will ease up this evening, showers will decrease, especially later tonight, and then tomorrow looks like a fairly subdued day compared to today.”
Sunday should see a high of 47 with a low of 37 overnight in both Tacoma and Olympia.
This story was originally published December 14, 2024 at 10:07 AM.
