Wind-whipped Washington state to get some relief

Catalina Gaitán, The Seattle Times on Feb 25, 2025

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SEATTLE — Rain-soaked, wind-whipped Western Washingtonians can breathe a sigh of relief thanks to a calm, if slightly damp, weather forecast ahead.

A powerful thunderstorm with severe winds blew through the region Monday night and Tuesday morning, downing trees and power lines, disrupting train service, and causing power outages for tens of thousands of households and businesses.

Wind gusts nearly broke a record at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport early Tuesday morning, when forecasters recorded a 52 mph gust, just shy of the 53 mph record set there in February 2008, according to the National Weather Service. The blustery winds downed trees in at least 15 places across Seattle, including one tree that fell onto an SUV with three people in it Monday night near Woodland Park Zoo. No one was injured, according to the Seattle Fire Department.

Two other trees crashed into power lines and started multiple small fires in the East Queen Anne neighborhood before 4 a.m. Tuesday, police and transportation officials said. Police temporarily closed Aurora Bridge as firefighters extinguished the fires, slowing traffic for hours.

Between Monday night and Tuesday morning, the Seattle Department of Transportation had responded to about 125 “tree-related issues,” spokesperson Mariam Ali said.

“We are still actively working to clear the right of way and address any additional incidents that may arise,” Ali said by email Tuesday afternoon.

Around 150,000 customers, mostly of Puget Sound Energy, were without power in Western Washington at 6:15 a.m. Nearly a third of those customers regained power by 3 p.m. Edmonds College closed its main and north campuses, three Seattle schools issued early dismissals, and the Highline, Northshore, Lake Washington and Vashon Island school districts had delayed starts Tuesday because of the outages.

The Sounder north line and Amtrak trains were suspended north of Seattle after a landslide near Everett, Sound Transit announced shortly after 12 p.m. A Sounder bus shuttle is replacing the N line during the Tuesday evening commute, the agency said.

The storm was both a boom and a bust for skiers and snowboarders, dumping more than a foot of snow in some areas in less than 24 hours, with 15 inches at Crystal Mountain Resort, 13 inches at Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park and 12 inches at Stevens Pass and the top of Alpental at Snoqualmie Pass. The extreme winds, however, delayed chairlift openings at Alpental, Crystal and Stevens Pass, while White Pass Ski Area closed Tuesday because of power outages and winds surpassing 100 mph.

The worst of the storm appeared to be over by Tuesday afternoon, as skies cleared across Seattle. Wind gusts are expected to slow to 10 mph after midnight, according to the weather service.

Forecasters expect the rest of the week to bring a mix of cloudy and sunny skies, with high temperatures in the upper 50s through Saturday. Rain could return between Thursday and Monday, with showers most likely on Saturday.

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