Just as the weather appeared to settle down, the National Weather Service in Seattle issued a Tornado Warning for Tokeland at about 4:45 p.m. Wednesday, followed shortly after with Grays Harbor Emergency Management stating at 5 p.m. the Tornado Warning had expired as wind circulation had weakened below severe limits.
“We continue to monitor radar for possible additional storms capable of producing waterspouts (potentially moving on land),” Grays Harbor Emergency Management stated.
The tornado was forecast to hit Westport about 4:20 p.m, and Ocean Shores at 4:35 p.m. and possibly land in Aberdeen. A confirmed waterspout was located offshore and moving onshore near Tokeland, moving north at 25 miles per hour.
The service warned flying debris will be dangerous to those caught without shelter. Mobile homes will be damaged or destroyed. Damage to roofs, windows, and vehicles will occur. Tree damage is likely.
The warning stated to take cover now, move to a basement or an interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building. Avoid windows. If you are outdoors, in a mobile home, or in a vehicle, move to the closest substantial shelter and protect yourself from flying debris.
The warning continued, motorists should not take shelter under highway overpasses. If you cannot safely drive away from the tornado, as a last resort, either park your vehicle and stay put, or abandon your vehicle and lie down in a low lying area and protect yourself from flying debris.
It was a scary moment as smart phones lit up with the warning, prompting those at Walmart in Aberdeen to take cover.
Cyclone bomb
The cyclone bomb trashed much of Grays Harbor County Tuesday evening and into Wednesday morning, with hail, heavy rain, crashing waves, thunder and lightning and strong winds, causing power outages throughout the area.
The bomb cyclone emerged from the middle of the Pacific Ocean and swirled with such intensity off Washington’s coast that it ravaged the region Tuesday night, ripping down trees, toppling power lines and killing at least two.
Each storm like this is unique — with its own personality, said Lynn McMurdie, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington.
“And this one has a lot of personality,” she said.
Pressure dropped 27 millibars in six hours, about four times faster than the rate meteorologists use to label storms as bomb cyclones. It dropped so far and so fast that, under one method of analysis, it landed in a category reserved for the strongest of its kind: A “super explosive cyclone.”
Bomb cyclones are common enough but rarely form as far south as this one did and gather so much strength so quickly, said Jason Ahsenmacher, lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Fairbanks.
As far back as the records go, a cyclone this strong hasn’t formed before in this part of the world at this time of year, Ahsenmacher said. It belongs to an upper echelon of low-pressure systems.
After it began to form, the cyclone loosely tracked the Pacific jet stream. Counterclockwise it churned, heading toward the coast, building strength along the way.
Air over western Washington rushed toward that low-pressure trough, generating wind gusts of up to 74 mph in places. Hundreds of thousands of people lost power, marking Seattle’s most severe outage since 2006, while two died in the maelstrom. A woman was killed by a falling tree at a Lynnwood homeless encampment, and another woman was killed by a tree that smashed into her Bellevue home.
A characteristic that made this particular storm so damaging was the direction of the winds, east to west, said Karin Bumbaco, deputy state climatologist. Usually, Washington’s strongest winds come from the south or the southwest.
For trees, that makes a difference.
Think of a house plant, growing so its leaves or vines win the best exposure to sunlight. Similarly, trees can grow so their trunks, limbs and even roots resist strong winds from a particular direction, said Ray Larson, curator for the University of Washington’s Arboretum.
So heavy gusts blowing from the east, especially such strong winds, hit trees across the region at a weak angle, causing them to crack, fall and splinter, Larson said.
Utility and road crews across the region scrambled to clear the wreckage through Wednesday, and outages could stretch on for days.
As strong as this storm was — and it was a “really, really strong storm” — Washington avoided the worst of it because the system never made landfall, said Kirby Cook, science and operations officer for the National Weather Service in Seattle.
A timeline of Grays Harbor power outages
Tuesday, 3:37 p.m.
PUD crews are responding to an outage in Ocean Shores impacting around 1500 customers in the area of Point Brown Ave and Albatross St. The outage is believe to be a downed tree in the lines. There is no estimated time of restoration.
Tuesday, 3:52 p.m.
Crews have removed a downed tree from the power lines and restored power to customers in Ocean Shores.
Tuesday, 4:17 p.m.
PUD crews are responding to a power outage on Grays Harbor’s South Beach, impacting 733 customers from the Udell Hanson Road, south to the end of the line in Tokeland. There is no estimated time of restoration.
Tuesday, 4:24 p.m.
PUD crews are responding to a power outage impacting roughly 2300 customers on the North Beach of Grays Harbor from Grass Creek, north to the end of the line in Taholah. Power is also out to portion of the Ocean Beach Road. Crews are looking for the cause of the outage and will not have an estimated time of restoration until the cause is found.
Tuesday, 4:45 p.m.
Power is out to 864 customers in North Grays Harbor, including Neilton, Amanda Park, Lake Quinault, Clearwater, and Kalaloch. There is no estimated time of restoration.
Tuesday, 5:53 p.m.
PUD crews have removed downed trees from power lines and restored power to all customers from Grayland, south to Tokeland.
Tuesday, 6:16 p.m.
Crews are working on an outage impacting around 1540 customers on the East Hoquiam Rd, Axford Prairie and surrounding areas.
Tuesday, 7:26 p.m.
Crews have begun to make partial restorations on the North Beach, restoring power to customers on Burrows Rd, Ocean Beach Rd, Copalis Beach and Copalis Crossing. Work continues in the Moclips and Taholah areas.
Tuesday, 10:09 p.m.
Crews have found significant damage from downed trees around Lake Quinault. Expect several hours before full restoration of service in the area around Lake Quinault and north to Kalaloch.
Wednesday, 6:06 a.m.
Crews have made progress over night but over 1200 customers are still without power in Grays Harbor.
Extensive tree damage in the Lake Quinault area has power out for over 800 customers in Amanda Park, Neilton, Quinault, Clearwater and Kalaloch.
Work continues to restore power to 400 customers in the Axford Prairie area, including Humptulips, Walker Road, Highway 101 north of Hoquiam, and the surrounding areas.
Power has been restored to customers on the North Beach, with the exception of several scattered outages impacting individual customers.
Wednesday, 6:22 a.m.
Crews are working on an outage impacting over 900 customers in Westport. The impacted area is from Ocean Ave to the jetty, including Ocean Ave, Montesano St, Nyhus St, Elizabeth Ave, Hoquiam St, and Broadway St North, and surrounding areas. A lightning strike is believed to.be the cause.
Wednesday, 7:57 a.m.
Following a suspected lightning strike, crews have patrolled the Westport lines, found them all up and clear of debris, closed circuit breakers, and restored power to all customers.
Wednesday, 10:16 a.m.
Grays Harbor PUD is responding to an outage in Tokeland impacting around 200 customers. A downed tree is believed to be the cause of the outage, but there is no estimated time of restoration.
Wednesday, 11:37 a.m.
Crews are responding to make repairs to damaged equipment that is causing a 300 customer outage in Westport. The impacted area is Ocean Ave, Montesano St, and Forrest St. There is no estimated time of restoration.
Wednesday, 1:08 p.m.
Crews have completed repairs and restored power to 300 customers in Westport.
Wednesday, 2:19 p.m.
Power is out to 930 customers in the area of the Elma Gate Rd, South Bank Road and Oakville. Crews are responding but there is no estimated time of restoration.
Wednesday, 3:34 p.m.
UD crews are making progress repairing downed and damaged lines following last night’s storm.
In the Lake Quinault area, crews are working with extensive tree and system damage. Two crews continue to make repairs to an outage impacting 860 customers.
Crews have restored power to all but a small pocket of customers (East Humptulips Road) in Axford Prairie.
Crews have removed downed tree branches from the lines on the South Bank Road and restored power in the Oakville/Cedarville area.
Work continues in the Tokeland area.
Wednesday, 4:11 p.m.
Crews have rehung downed wire and restored power to customers in Tokeland.
— The Seattle Times contributed to this report.
Barbara A. Smith / For The Daily World A Grays Harbor PUD crew works the Hoquiam area Wednesday morning.
Courtesy of NASA The bomb cyclone strengthens off Washington’s coast on Tuesday. Pressure dropped 27 millibars in six hours, about four times faster than the rate meteorologists use to label storms as bomb cyclones and in a fraction of the normal time span. It dropped so far and so fast that, under one method of analysis, it landed in a category reserved for the strongest of its kind: A “super explosive cyclone.”
