A freak bout of thunder and lightning rolled across Seattle early Tuesday morning with wind gusts and rain that left thousands without power but the lights stayed on across central Seattle and even the gusty wind apparently caused no damage in the Central District. Over the weekend, the area was deluged by what city meteorologists are calling a “30-year” storm — details on that, below.
The National Weather Service put out this short term advisory last night as the storm hit around 12:30 AM:
A STRONG LINE OF SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS ASSOCIATED WITH A STRONG COLD FRONT WILL PRODUCE BRIEF SOUTHWEST WIND GUSTS TO 55 MPH AS IT PASSES.
Seattle City Light says that more than 8,000 were without power in the city, none in central Seattle:
An estimated 8,500 customers lost power in several scattered neighborhoods including Northgate, Lichton Springs, Pinehurst, White Center and Burien. About 12:30 a.m. a thunderstorm rolled through the area causing lightening and gusts of high winds. Crews are being called in from home to start repairs. There is no estimate on the time of restoration.
Forecast calls for lighter rain to continue through the weekend.
Meanwhile, city measurements of the Pineapple Express weekend storm are in and they’re impressive — some parts of the city were hit with more rain in a 24-hour period than has been seen in Seattle in 100 years. For the CD and the rest of the central city, it was only marginally less impressive — a 30-year storm. You can see rainfall totals mapped on this plotting provided by Seattle Public Utilities. Over 3 inches for the CD this weekend. And quite a bit more to come, to be sure — but, like normal, this rain will be spread out over the next, sigh, seven months.
Do you happen to know if that is a 100 year storm record for ANY date in Seattle, or if it is a record for that calendar date? We often hear records quoted as being the whatever-est weather for that date.
The map is too small to read, and can’t be enlarged.