High Wind in Washington, February 2, 1999

A wind storm moved through eastern Washington causing damage in many locations. Several remote weather stations in Benton County and the Richland Airport reported wind gusts to 68 mph between 930 AM and 300 PM. A van was blown over in Richland at 1130 AM. Wind gusts were estimated to have reached 50 to 70 mph in the Naches and Toppenish areas which blew over power poles and caused outages. Wind blew some paper over a heat lamp which caused a house fire in Toppenish. Twenty firefighters took more than a hour to put the fire out that was fanned by high wind. The house sustained $75,000 in damage and a litter of puppies died in the blaze. A remote weather station at Hanford reported wind gusts to 78 mph between 3 and 315 PM. There were numerous reports from Walla Walla of blown down tree limbs and power lines. The wind gusted to 48 mph at the Walla Walla airport between 230 PM and 400 PM. Blowing dust and small branches breaking off trees were reported in Richland around 500 PM. In Yakima, numerous trees were blown down, power outages occurred, minor injuries reported, and the wind gusts were estimated between 60 and 70 mph between 6 and 1000 PM. A three foot diameter tree was blown over onto a house. A peak wind gust of 45 mph was reported at the Yakima airport at around 10 PM. At the Ellensburg airport, the peak wind gust was 48 mph at around 1130 PM.