58 MPH Gusts For Puget Sound Friday As 'Major Windstorm' Approaches

BELLEVUE, WA - The National Weather Service on Thursday night placed the entire Puget Sound area under a high wind watch due to a strong storm poised to hit the region on Friday afternoon. The weather service's wind warning indicates that Puget Sound could see sustained winds up to 40 MPH, which means possible downed tree limbs and power outages.

"Winds of this strength can break branches off of trees, topple weakened trees and produce power outages," the wind watch says. "A High Wind Watch means there is the potential for a hazardous high wind event. Sustained winds of at least 40 mph or gusts of 58 mph or stronger may occur."

The wind watch affects the entire Puget Sound interior from Bellingham to Tacoma and up through the Kitsap Peninsula. The storm is also expected to bring rain and possible thunderstorms.

University of Washington meteorologist Cliff Mass called the storm developing off the Pacific Coast a "major windstorm."

"Confidence is now very high that an unusually strong coastal storm will move northward over the Pacific Northwest coastal waters on Friday morning before it makes landfall on northern Vancouver Island," Mass wrote in a blog post published Thursday.

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