Bomb cyclone brings first October gap windstorm in years. A stronger one is on tap for Sunday!

We are more than a month early from our usual Cascadia windstorm season.  In the three fall/winter seasons I've kept records of these windstorms (>= 40 mph).  The earliest in the season was on a Dec 1st (2019). And if my memory serves me, this is the earliest in the 13 years I’ve lived in Snoqualmie.

Oct 21st - wunderground station KWASNOQU33

These winds don't usually show up until we get much colder (higher pressure) in E. Washington, then run-of-the mill frontal lows off the coast can easily trigger the push through the mountain gaps.  While we didn’t have the super chilled E. WA, we had an extremely low pressure center off the coast.

We'll be keeping a close eye on Sunday's potential action for higher wind gusts than what we've seen today. 

In the meantime, periods of boring old light/moderate rain tomorrow morning, hopefully breaking up before another unimpressive front moves through at least the first part of Saturday.

Bomb cyclone #2 on Sunday.  Cliff Mass is already calling it "the most powerful storm in Northwest history".   As of now it isn't expected to make landfall in WA, but latest models do show it getting dangerously close to Vancouver Is. before curling north and making landfall, somewhat weakened by then, well up the B.C. coast.  If it takes the path as currently forecasted, we could expect gap wind gusts into the 50s mph, with the strongest winds during daylight hours Sunday.

Happy Friday!