Severe Winds To Hit Most of Eastern Washington Today

This is one of those days where you need to keep an eye on your trash cans, recycling bins, patio furniture, and inflatable holiday lawn decor.  The winds arrived last night (Sunday Dec. 7th) and will be sticking around for the next day or two at a pretty heavy clip. It's enough to watch for reports of houses potentially falling on a wicked sister.

The 20 mile an hour gusts that moved in yesterday will stock around and increase later today.  The National Weather Service has issued wind advisories for multiple areas that begin at 1pm this afternoon and stay in effect until 7pm tomorrow (Tuesday) night.

Get our free mobile app

The areas that will be impacted are:

• The Lower Columbia Basin (which includes the Tri-Cities)
• The Yakima Valley
• The Foothills of the Blue Mountains
• The Eastern Columbia River Gorge
• North Central Oregon
• The Simcoe Highlands

Winds are expected to come out of the Southwest and hold steadily between 25-35 mph with the gusts kicking up as strong as 55 mph.

High Winds Can Do Heavy Damage

Power lines and tree limbs can come down on and around roadways.  Power outages can result if lines fall or are compromised by falling tree limbs.  Traffic signals could also go out making intersections more exciting in the least desirable way.

If you are using one of the many bridges during your commute, use extra caution as crosswinds will be strong enough to nudge some vehicles sideways.  Larger vehicles are at a greater risk to be pushed slightly off course and potentially causing an accident.

Be extra aware while driving, especially during the work commute hours and leave a little extra space between you and the vehicle in front of you just in case something happens.  While the heavy winds are expected to leave Tuesday night, we will still have double digit winds until Friday when they fall below 10 mph and set the stage for a calm weather weekend.