WEST SEATTLE WEATHER: Gusty wind brings down trees

9:23 AM: Thanks to everyone who’s sent photos from the aftermath of this morning’s burst of wind. First, the strong wind was relatively brief but brought down trees and limbs. The photo above is from 41st/Thistle, sent by Guillaume Wiatr. And Bill Schrier in Admiral reports a downed tree limbs block SW Holgate street 4500 block and 46th SW at SW Holgate:

Next photo is from an anonymous reader, along 42nd between Juneau & Findlay.

No injuries or major power outages reported so far. There’s been no wind alert, either, but the forecast for Tuesday night warns of gusts above 40 mph.

ADDED 11:09 AM: This photo was just tweeted from the same stretch of 42nd SW shown above:

Also, as noted in this comment, there’s an unmapped power outage several blocks east of there along 37th SW. RB also tells us via email that the neighborhood is on an “old 4KV feeder” that SCL has confirmed won’t show up on the outage map – and they’ve been pushing for an upgrade “for years.” Meantime, Waikikigirl sent this photo from North Shorewood:

She reports, “Huge tree down on 26th Ave SW Southbound between 110th and 114th.”

ADDED 3:51 PM: From L’Nayim:

Dog owners should take note that a huge tree took out a portion of the fence at Westcrest dog park.

9:40 PM: Update from 41st and Thistle – the street’s been cleared by city crews working into the evening. Also of note, Susan Romanenghi sent this photo of a downed tree across the Lincoln Park north path:

That was at midday; we don’t know if it’s since been cleared.

19 Replies to "WEST SEATTLE WEATHER: Gusty wind brings down trees"

  • D-Mom December 26, 2022 (9:58 am)

    I’d love to know what those gusts were clocked at around 7am. Scary!  Glad it was short-lived. 

    • newnative December 26, 2022 (10:22 am)

      yeah, we rarely hear anything because we face an ally opposite another building but the wind actually woke me up. I am glad we didn’t lose power. 

    • Eddie December 26, 2022 (10:48 am)

      Had a gust register 43 at 7:37 this morning just west of Alaska Junction 

    • ADB December 26, 2022 (12:35 pm)

      I’m not sure how accurate my home weather station is, but I saw it at 56mph at one point this morning. Didn’t really believe it, but then my neighbor’s tree came down on our fence, and it blew over part of the fence on the other side. Just southwest of Alaska Junction as well.

      • AMD December 26, 2022 (2:11 pm)

        Seattle Weather Blog reported gusts at 55mph.  It was short but crazy this morning.

        • D-Mom December 26, 2022 (11:38 pm)

          Thanks for the updates. My guess at the time was 50-60mph. Sounds like I was pretty accurate. It reminded me a little of the 2006 wind storm, which I know gusted much stronger. Not looking forward to more coming Tuesday. 

    • sam-c December 26, 2022 (12:36 pm)

      The gusts around 7am were intense! Woke me up and I rushed to make coffee in case the power went out.  Luckily it stayed on.

  • Rbalright December 26, 2022 (10:06 am)

    Power is out since 7am along the west side of 37th between Dawson and Findlay. Tree in green belt above Fairmont Park took down the line. It’s a small old 5kv line so we’re not very optimistic about restoration. Not showing on city light outage map yet even.

    • D December 26, 2022 (4:54 pm)

      Same situation here in the same area. Out since 7 am and can’t get through to customer service because they’re closed for the holiday. We’ll probably have to throw out everything in our fridge and freezer at this point when we’re already struggling. Merry Christmas!

  • Busrider December 26, 2022 (11:44 am)

    Those are some fast “guests”

    • WSB December 26, 2022 (11:54 am)

      Sorry, that’s two mistakes today, having a bad day. Fixed, thanks.

      • J December 26, 2022 (12:27 pm)

        You’re allowed!

  • Mj December 26, 2022 (12:17 pm)

    Anyone have a recommendation for a fence contractor specialist?

  • 1994 December 26, 2022 (4:49 pm)

    The home on  the corner of 26th Ave SW and 112th are very lucky that huge half of a tree fell on 26th Ave, see photo above, and not onto their house. Looked like the rest of the tree needs to be removed. 

    • waikikigirl December 27, 2022 (7:33 am)

      @1994 Yes the homeowners are very lucky it fell toward the street side and didn’t hurt anyone or thing! Note bus stop! On my walks I always looked at that tree,  well really all the trees (I believe Maples) planted along 26th and thought to myself “one of these days they’ll come down  and hopefully not hurt anyone or thing”. They’re big, old and trimmed “wrong” IMO. We drove by an hour later and they were still cleaning up the tree and some sections were so big they were using a backhoe! 

  • Norse Girl December 26, 2022 (4:52 pm)

    West Seattle Fence

  • Kathleen December 27, 2022 (4:01 am)

    Was at my son’s home near Sea Tac airport on Christmas Day. We spoke of the danger an 80 ft fir tree towering over his home presented if it should fall—7:30 a.m. a rain deluge and high win d event lasting only three minutes, or less toppled the fir. He heard  the crack and braced himself in hopes to hear the initial hit and then know which direction to go to miss the impact; luckily it missed the house by ten feet.  Why aren’t we calling that wind event by a more succinct term, such as, cyclone, down burst, or some other similar term since it was extremely short-lived but of such an impact to down hundreds of trees and send transformers bursting with light in every direction. I don’t think we have correctly “called this one”.

    • Al King December 27, 2022 (7:00 am)

      Kathleen. What scientifically correct term should it have been called??

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