Gusty wind, rain brings down trees, cuts power to thousands

Heavy winds and rain brought down trees, closed roads and cut power around the Puget Sound region Tuesday.

Two tornado warnings and a special marine weather warning were issued by the National Weather Service. Those warnings have since been canceled or expired.

Several utilities in Western Washington reported outages. At one point, more than 55,000 customers were without power.

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One school district and several other schools closed due to power outages. See the list here.

The SR 104 Hood Canal Bridge closed around 10:30 a.m. due to strong winds and big waves. It reopened at 11:48 a.m., but the Washington State Department of Transportation said weather could force another closure.

Trees came crashing down in multiple places in Renton overnight, causing issues on roads. In the Benson Hill neighborhood, power lines came down.

In the Renton Highlands, a large tree came down at the Windsor apartment complex, not far from the QFC and Safeway in the area. The tree is pushing into the side of the apartment complex.

King County Road Services reported that parts of several roads were closed by downed trees Tuesday morning.

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Tree down near Big Finn Hill Park in Kirkland Viewer George Dremousis said this tree fell about 20 feet in front of his car. (George Dremousis)

The windy weather overnight also caused a tree to come down near Big Finn Hill Park in Kirkland.

Viewer George Dremousis said the tree fell about 20 feet in front of his car. The tree appeared to have knocked down some power lines. According to Puget Sound Energy, there’s an outage in Finn Hill, with the epicenter near St. Edwards State Park.

Live power lines that came down closed a street in Kent, and a fallen tree blocked streets in Seattle’s Wedgwood neighborhood.

A home in the 7300 block of 39th Avenue Northeast in North Seattle caught fire after a tree fell onto power lines and there was an electrical surge into the home, according to the Seattle Fire Department.

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LOOKING AHEAD

There will be a break in the action Tuesday night through most of Wednesday and there could be a little sunshine, too. There is a slight chance of rain Wednesday, but most areas won’t have any appreciable rain.

On Thursday, a warm front moves north with some light rain through the day at times. Heavier rain arrives Thursday night and persists through Friday, associated with an atmospheric river.

This will bring more than an inch of rain to lowland locations and more to the mountains with rain all the way up to 7,000 feet in elevation. This will cause river levels to spike, but we’ll have to see as we get closer if rivers could get close to flood stage. We could see some drier weather with just a few showers on Saturday, with increasing rain on Sunday.

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