The effects of a rapidly developing “bomb cyclone” hit the Seattle area Tuesday night, with winds of 50 to 75 mph toppling trees across the region, killing at least one person and injuring two others.
A woman was killed in Linwood when a tree fell on a campsite. According to Minami County Fire Authority.
Two other people were injured when a tree fell on a trailer in Maple Valley, south of Seattle. Puget Sound Fire Report.
One person was quickly freed, but it took firefighters an hour to free another person who was trapped in the dismembered rubble. The two were taken to a local hospital, but their condition has not been released.
A driver was hit by a fallen tree while driving in northeast Seattle. According to the Seattle Fire Department.
The person was released and is in stable condition, firefighters said. Crews at the scene said several other trees also fell near the intersection.
Wind gusts in the Cascade foothills just east of Seattle reached more than 110 mph, driven by a low-pressure system that exploded in just a few hours while circling off the coast of Washington.
As of early Wednesday morning, an estimated more than 700,000 people were without power across Western Washington. According to PowerOutage.US.
More than 100,000 of those people were in Seattle.
Wind gusts reached 114 mph in the town of Enumclaw. Before the wind gauge goes dark, so do the rest of the city.
“The sounds coming from here are unreal!” said Anthony Concannon. “The wind blowing through the trees and power lines is deafening.”
In Bellevue, the state's fifth-most populous city, wind gusts of up to 52 miles per hour sent firefighters to help multiple neighborhoods that reported trees invading homes.
“Trees are falling all over the city, hitting houses.” Bellevue fire officials said:. “If possible, go to the bottom floor and stay away from windows. Don't go outside if you can.”
Several major highways, including busy State Routes 18, 516 and 169, are closed due to fallen trees and power lines, state and local city officials said. Just before midnight, a tree fell across four lanes of Interstate 405 in Bellevue.
“There are so many downed trees and power lines that we will be posting locations until the lights come on.” Snohomish Regional Fire Rescue posted an outrage on X.
East wind gusts reached 59 mph at Sea-Tac Airport, and the rare easterly winds left pilots with difficult crosswinds to navigate a runway tailored to the sustained southerly winds the region typically endures. .
Bomb cyclone reduces pressure by 66 mbar in 24 hours
This storm was the result of a historic storm that evolved from a harmless trough of low pressure to the strongest storm in history. recorded in that part of the Pacific Ocean.
Measurements showed that the storm's pressure dropped by 66 millibars over 24 hours, ultimately resulting in a storm with a central pressure of 943 millibars, equivalent to a major Category 4 hurricane.
It deserves the title of “bomb cyclone,” which is given when a storm strengthens by about 24 millibars in 24 hours.
Although the center of the storm remained several hundred miles offshore, the storm's location just west of the Washington coast, combined with a cold, dense high pressure system over eastern Washington, created a large pressure difference across the western half of the state. I did.
Winds from eastern Washington slammed into the barrier created by the Cascade Mountains, but gaps in the terrain along the pass cracked the barrier, accelerating the wind and forcing it through the pass like a hole in a balloon.
The winds battered the town, which sits along a hilly stretch of highway that serves as a gateway to popular hiking trails and ski resorts.
As the easterly winds reach the western edge of the Cascades and shake off their mountain captors, they rush across the lowlands of Puget Sound, bringing rare easterly winds that catch the heavily forested landscapes off guard by the more common southerly winds in the region. Ta.
The result was widespread downed trees along the Puget Sound region from north to south.
Winds are expected to subside by early Wednesday morning, allowing a major clean-up operation to begin.
