Rain will continue across most of the area on Wednesday morning, with most of the rain being light to moderate and heavy showers possible.
We had wind gusts in the 30, 40 and 50 mph range overnight, but the strongest gusts have passed.
Around 1 a.m., the National Weather Service said peak winds around that time were 66 mph in Hoquiam, 60 mph in Olympia, 51 mph on Whidbey Island and 75 mph in Bellingham.
As of 4 a.m., more than 9,500 customers in Western Washington were without power. Most of those were in Lewis and Mason counties, but just an hour later that number had dropped to 4,000.
We will continue to see windy to windy weather with gusts on the coast and closer to 80 km/h in the north, but the rest of the area will mainly see gusts in the 20 and 30 km/h range, with isolated gusts of 40 km/h.
Winds will continue to decrease Wednesday morning, but will remain breezy to breezy at a more normal level around 10 to 30 mph. The persistent rain will end later this morning, but we will have rapidly increasing showers that may be heavy at times with some isolated thunderstorms.
Rain has been very heavy during the Olympics so far, with over 3″ so far, and some of the rivers that feed the Olympics will either experience flooding or be close to it. In addition, the coast may experience some minor localized flooding during high tides and heavy rain until later today.
This afternoon will be mild in the mid to upper 50s, with showers and sun and isolated thunderstorms. Expect windy to windy weather at times.
In the mountains, snow levels are between 4,000 and 5,000 feet, so only rain should fall on Snoqualmie Pass, with a few inches of slush possible around Stevens Pass. Heavier snow will fall in the North Cascades, where a Winter Storm Warning is in effect.
We will have showers on Wednesday and eventually some sunshine, but overall it will be mostly cloudy.
Downpours of stormy rain will move inland from the coast, and there is also a chance of isolated thunderstorms. The risk of thunderstorms is greatest near the Pacific beaches, where there is a risk of waterspouts that we will see on Wednesday. and coastal flooding with high tides on Wednesday afternoon. No tidal flooding is expected around the Sound.
Looking ahead
There will be showers and sunshine on Thursday, with drier weather on Friday with highs in the upper 40s to near 50 degrees. During this period of the weekend, snow levels will drop to Snoqualmie Pass levels, so we could get some snow accumulation there.
More cloud and rain are forecast for Saturday, increasing late, along with windy conditions into Sunday. Some rain will continue to fall as we close out the weekend with the prospect of some drier times early next week.
