WeatherWatcher: A One Two Punch for Windstorms

I wanted to talk about a couple of developing weather systems that are heading our way this weekend and early next week. 

First, Saturday evening we have a significant storm with a particularly deep low pressure center moving in. A lot of rain is expected in the morning and through the afternoon with breezy conditions. Saturday evening is when the real fun begins with winds picking up as the low pressure center tracks over Northwest Washington into British Columbia. There is still some uncertainty to this storm so I think the strong winds could be a hit or miss at this point. If we do get hit with the winds, the National Weather Service is expecting wind gusts up to 45 mph, not enough to meet any high wind warning or advisories as of now. Look for winds to peak late evening and into the overnight hours of Sunday morning.

Monday-Tuesday the remains of Hurricane Ana (The one that skirted west of Hawaii last week) is likely to approach the west coast as a modified cold core storm. It is currently recurving and getting caught in the jet stream north and west of Hawaii. Details of how this storm may develop as far as winds go is very uncertain, and exactly where it will hit is also uncertain at this time. We will likely get a lot of moisture and rain from this storm at the least. 

Potential, is the word I am using for the Monday-Tuesday storm. The 1962 Columbus Day Storm was a similar situation but slightly different track than is expected of this one. Even though these once tropical cyclones are no longer, they sometimes redevelop into extratropical storms with very significant winds. I highly recommend reading up on the Columbus Day storm linked above and learn some weather history. I like to remind my friends and neighbors when they think we have severe weather events now, to look back and read about some of these events that happened. The 1962 storm is only one example of severe weather the Northwest has endured over the past 150 years.

When storm warnings and watches are issued I will post updates on them as much as I can.  Some of these storms can develop with little notice.  Be sure to check http://www.shorelineweather.com for current conditions and information on forecasted winter storms.