Three interesting things here. First:
Thousands were without power Sunday morning after an overnight windstorm that blew through the Seattle area.
As of 6 a.m., Puget Sound Energy was reporting about 218,000 customers were without power. “While we will be working as quickly as we safely can, we expect that some customers may be without power for multiple days,” Puget Sound Energy said in a tweet.
Second, Alaskan Air was grounded by the power outage:
Alaska Airlines flights are back in the air after a nationwide ground stop that was apparently caused by a power outage.
The airline says all its flights were grounded between about 4:20 a.m. and 5:15 a.m. Sunday after a power outage in the Seattle area, where its operations are based.
Third is the El Niño effect.
Things often calm down after January 1 during El Nino years….but not this year…with the U.S. West Coast from central California to Washington State about to be pummeled by a series of storms. Rain, snow, wind? Plenty for everyone.
A view of the latest infrared satellite imagery shows an amazing line-up of one storm after another stretching way into the Pacific. A traffic jam of storms.
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What about precipitation you ask? Do you really want to know? The accumulated total through 4 AM next Thursday is impressive, with 5-10 inches over many mountain areas and even 10-20 inches over parts of northern CA, the Olympics and southern BC.
Snow? There will be abundant amounts. For example, here is the accumulated snowfall for the 72 hours ending 4 PM Wednesday. 2-3 feet for the high terrain from the central Sierra Nevada to southern BC. Our winter ski season is secure.
There is a silver lining of all this action of course: it will provide an immense amount of water to fill our reservoirs and enhance our snowpack, a snowpack that is now in pretty decent shape (see latest summary below). Water resources should be fine next summer.