A storm system packing hurricane-force winds swept through Washington State on Tuesday night, leaving one person dead and more than 600,000 without power as of Wednesday morning.
Authorities confirmed that the powerful storm disrupted travel, downed trees, and posed severe safety risks across the region.
According to the New York Times, the storm was fuelled by a rare combination of a bomb cyclone and an atmospheric river. The bomb cyclone, which rapidly lost atmospheric pressure off the coasts of Oregon and Washington, worked in tandem with the moisture-rich atmospheric river to unleash destructive winds, life-threatening flooding, and massive ocean waves across the Northwest.
The National Weather Service reported wind gusts reaching 77 miles per hour in parts of Washington, surpassing the 74 m.p.h. threshold for hurricane-strength winds. Drivers were urged to avoid travel as falling trees and flying debris posed significant dangers, with strong winds persisting until early Wednesday morning.
In Lynnwood, Washington, a woman in her 50s was killed when a large tree fell on a homeless encampment, according to the local fire department. In Seattle, emergency crews rescued a person trapped after a tree collapsed onto their vehicle.
The widespread power outages affected over 650,000 customers at the peak of the storm, also disrupting radio transmissions at the Weather Service’s Seattle office. The outages were tracked by poweroutage.us, a site monitoring electrical disruptions.
The storm’s effects extended beyond Washington, with parts of Oregon and Northern California under high wind and winter storm warnings. Heavy rainfall, expected to last into the weekend, prompted flood watches in Northern California. Forecasters predicted more than a month’s worth of precipitation could fall in the Bay Area and other regions over the next few days.
The Weather Service also issued winter storm and blizzard warnings for the Cascade Mountains, with significant snowfall expected. Amtrak cancelled multiple train services between Seattle, Oakland, Portland, and Spokane through Thursday due to hazardous conditions.
Western Canada felt the storm’s initial impact Tuesday night, and the system is anticipated to bring further disruptions as it moves southward, intensifying concerns over flooding and severe weather in the coming days.
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