Clallam and Jefferson public utility crews stood by as a high-wind warning was issued for the Washington state coast for later today.
“We are aware of it,” said Clallam Public Utility dispatcher Quimby Moon.
“In fact, we’ve been in conference calls with the [National Weather Service] out of Seattle.”
That agency posted a high-wind warning for the coast, a high-wind watch in inland Clallam and Jefferson counties, and a gale warning for the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Admiralty Inlet, Hood Canal and Puget Sound.
Puget Sound Energy also was monitoring weather predictions on Wednesday evening, said Dorothy Bracken, Puget Sound Energy spokesperson.
“Based on where the National Weather Service is predicting the winds will be coming in, we will have crews positioned at those areas, what we call our operations bases,” she said.
She said that earlier forecasting reports had mentioned possible high winds in the northern part of Puget Sound and perhaps in the Hood Canal area, which would include East Jefferson County’s 12,500 PSE customers.
“But we’ve understood that it’s not comparable to last December’s blast,” Bracken said.
“It would not come any where near those winds.”
Moon and the National Weather Service in Seattle also agreed that the expected storm wouldn’t match last year’s Dec. 14 gale that blacked out areas of the North Olympic Peninsula, some for more than a week.
Winds of 30 to 40 mph were expected by 8 a.m. today on the Pacific coast, with gusts as high as 50 to 60 mph.
The storm was expected to pass by both Clallam and Jefferson counties by this evening.
