Scattered power outages reported in Thurston County as strong winds roll through area
Power outages dotted Thurston County on Thursday morning as gusty winds blew through the area.
NWS Meteorologist Matthew Cullen said the county has been hit by consistent, strong winds ranging from 20 to 25 mph. He said gusts between 35 and 40 mph have been reported in the I-5 corridor.
“So a lot of pretty strong winds, not just in the higher terrain, the higher hills, but also kind of through town,” Cullen said. “And so that’s why we’ve seen power outages this morning due to the strong wind.”
According to Puget Sound Energy’s outage map, there were about 1,300 customers without power as of 10 a.m.
Cullen said NWS expects winds will remain high in Thurston County for the next couple of hours and should diminish by the end of the day. He said folks should still expect some 20 mph wind gusts.
He said there will be another weather system that will move through Thurston County, bringing wind and rain to the region on Friday and into Friday night.
Cullen said there will be 25 mph winds throughout the weekend, but there shouldn’t be any stronger winds like what we’ve seen on Thursday.
He said there will be steady rain tonight which will diminish into Friday before another storm system carrying heavy rain moves through the area.
“We’re going to keep walking this pattern to the weekend where we see heavier rain, and then it lets up a little bit, some showers around,” he said. “And then we get the next system that brings more widespread rain, so it stays pretty active into the weekend.”
Cullen said this weather isn’t abnormal for this time of year. He said December tends to be the wettest time of year and the most active in terms of seeing storm systems move through that bring heavy winds.
“We are seeing several of these kinds of in succession, back to back to back, and that is what’s keeping the weather more active, and wind is not totally unusual either, but certainly the series of storm systems is what’s been more remarkable as of late.”
This story was originally published December 26, 2024 at 10:11 AM.
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