RipCity Weather: 12/16-12/17 Windstorm LIVE BLOG

WINDSTORM LIVE BLOG

(9:13 pm) Seeing as we are only a couple hours from what could be the biggest storm in at least a decade, I've decided to do a live blog throughout the night, with Observations, Insights, Updates and more regarding the storm. I also hope to have other people from the weather community chime in, as more knowledge is always helpful. I will be posting warnings pertaining to our area, as well as any power outage info. Any questions or personal Observations, please include in the comments section. All updates will include a timestamp, as well as any info on guest posters... Get ready, it's going to be a long night...

(10:37 pm) Winds have REALLY begun to pick up here in Gresham. Gusting now into the 30's and nearing 40, but that's just the start. Here's the latest from the 930pm AFD from the PDX NWS

UPGRADED SOUTH WILLAMETTE VALLEY TO A HIGH WIND 
  WARNING. OVER 18000 ARE WITHOUT POWER IN CORVALLIS AND THE HIGHEST 
  WIND GUSTS REPORTED SO FAR HAVE BEEN ACROSS THE SOUTH VALLEY. AT THIS 
  POINT...NOT SEEING ANY REASON WHY WINDS WOULD NECESSARILY CAUSE ANY 
  LESS DAMAGE OR BE LESS STRONG THAN FURTHER NORTH.   
   
  WINDS HAVE GENERALLY BACKED OFF SLIGHTLY FROM THEIR PEAK LEVELS 
  BETWEEN 5 AND 7 PM THOUGH. THIS SHOULD CHANGE SHORTLY AS THE PRESSURE 
  GRADIENT INCREASES EVEN FURTHER AS THE BENT BACK OCCLUSION PUSHES 
  INLAND.  
   
  THE BENT BACK OCCLUSION AND THE BURST OF WEST WINDS THAT WILL FOLLOW 
  SHOULD HIT THE COAST WITHIN ROUGHLY THE NEXT HOUR OR SO BASED ON 
  SATELLITE EXTRAPOLATION. THIS MINI FRONT WILL PUSH INLAND AN HOUR OR 
  TWO THEREAFTER...AFTER WHICH THE PRESSURE GRADIENT BETWEEN KEUG AND 
  KPDX SHOULD INCREASE DRAMATICALLY TO ROUGHLY 10MB. PEAK GRADIENTS 
  WILL LIKELY OCCUR BETWEEN 11 PM AND 4 AM...AND HENCE THIS APPEARS TO 
  BE THE BEST WINDOW FOR HIGH WINDS TO SURFACE ACROSS THE WILLAMETTE 
  VALLEY. GIVEN THE ISSUES WITH POWER OUTAGES THUS FAR...I WOULD EXPECT 
  WIDESPREAD POWER OUTAGES IF THESE WINDS SURFACE LATER TONIGHT.

So the south valley is really getting hammered at the moment... Recent gusts from that area include...

SALEM AIRPORT: 46 MPH
CORVALLIS AIRPORT: 43 MPH
EUGENE: 44 MPH

These are just the beginning. The gust of 43 isn't overly impressive, yet as mentioned, 18000 w/o power in Corvallis alone. I've got some homework to catch up on, but will be posting a new update by midnight, and sooner if anything develops...

(12:15 AM) Its getting real out there now... Low is just now making landfall, (image at left via Michael Trofimov) and the winds are increasing rapidly across the area as I'm awaiting the latest gust data from various locations. But just listening here, I'd venture to guess 40-50 as the nearest station to me is up to 40 MPH. What is going to really cause the most damaging winds is the "bent back occlusion" which is the tail of the low which "bends" over the area essentially whipping gusty winds around the low. When this hits, the strongest winds will occur, and this is when I'm expecting to see 50-60 MPH, if not 70+ somewhere. Let's now take a look at the latest power outage data via PGE and Pacific Power.

PGE UPDATE

PACIFIC POWER UPDATE

Albany

Area of outage: Zip code 97321
Power restored: 11:02 p.m. PST
Is your power still off? Please call 1-877-508-5088

Updated 11:45 p.m. PST on December 16

Astoria

Area of outage: Zip code 97103
Estimated time of restoration: Unknown at this time, please check back for updates
Cause: Unknown
Customers affected: Approximately 3 customers are without power, down from 1400 earlier
Crew: On site and repairs are underway