Brief high wind occurred in western Whatcom county.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS SEW wrote it up.
Brief high wind occurred in western Whatcom county.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Seattle, WA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jan 4, 9:15 PM PST, 6 hours 29 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...CORRECTED MARINE SECTION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
915 PM PST WED JAN 4 2012
.SYNOPSIS...SHOWERS WILL TAPER TONIGHT AND THURSDAY IN THE WAKE OF A
FRONTAL SYSTEM. A WEAK WEATHER SYSTEM MAY BRING SOME RAIN FRIDAY AND
FRIDAY NIGHT...MAINLY COAST AND SOUTHWEST INTERIOR. A WEAK RIDGE
WILL PROVIDE DRY WEATHER THIS WEEKEND. ANOTHER COLD FRONT WILL
ARRIVE SUNDAY NIGHT.
&&
.SHORT TERM...A FRONT IS CURRENTLY MOVING EAST OF THE AREA. RAIN HAS
CHANGED TO SHOWERS AND WINDS ARE EASING. THE HEAVY RAINS FROM
EARLIER IN THE DAY HAVE PUSHED THE SKOKOMISH RIVER ABOVE FLOOD STAGE
THIS EVENING. SEE THE HYDROLOGY SECTION BELOW FOR MORE DETAILS. A
WEAK UPPER LEVEL TROUGH WILL MOVE OVER THE AREA LATER TONIGHT AND
THURSDAY. THIS WILL KEEP A THREAT OF SHOWERS IN THE FORECAST BUT
MOST OF THIS ACTIVITY WILL BE OVER THE MOUNTAINS. SNOW LEVELS WILL
LOWER FROM 6000 TO 7000 FEET THIS EVENING TO 3000 TO 4000 FEET LATE
TONIGHT AND THEN AROUND 2500 FEET THURSDAY. THERE SHOULD BE ENOUGH
QPF TO BRING ADVISORY AMOUNTS OF SNOW TO MOUNT BAKER...ROUGHLY FROM
08Z TO 20Z TONIGHT AND THURSDAY IN MOIST UNSTABLE ONSHORE FLOW. THE
PASSES WILL GET A LITTLE SNOW AFTER MIDNIGHT TONIGHT AND INTO
THURSDAY BUT AMOUNTS WILL LIKELY STAY BELOW ADVISORY LEVELS. A WEAK
UPPER RIDGE WILL MOVE OVER THE AREA THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY WHICH
SHOULD FURTHER DRY THINGS OUT. THE MODELS SHOW A WEAK WEATHER SYSTEM
MOVING TO THE COAST LATER IN THE DAY FRIDAY THEN SLIDING SOUTHEAST
INTO OREGON FRIDAY NIGHT. THE NEW NAM IS MORE IN LINE WITH THE GFS
AND ECMWF SHOWING AT LEAST A FEW TENTHS OF QPF AT THE COAST AND OVER
THE SOUTHWEST INTERIOR FRIDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING. WILL UPDATE THE
FORECAST TO RAISE POPS THESE AREAS FOR THAT TIME. A STRONGER UPPER
RIDGE WILL BUILD OVER THE AREA SATURDAY FOR A DRY DAY. SCHNEIDER
.LONG TERM...PREVIOUS DISCUSSION...AN UPPER LEVEL RIDGE WILL BRING
DRY WEATHER TO THE PAC NW THIS WEEKEND. THE RIDGE LOOKS DIRTY WITH A
COLD FRONT OVER B.C. SO SUNBREAKS WILL BE LIMITED AND WILL STICK
WITH MOSTLY CLOUDY CONDITIONS. THIS FRONT WILL WEAKEN AS IT SLIDES
SE INTO WESTERN WA LATE SUNDAY NIGHT. HIGH PRESSURE WILL AGAIN BUILD
OVER THE THE REGION EARLY NEXT WEEK FOR DRY AND COOL CONDITIONS. 33
&&
.HYDROLOGY...A FRONTAL SYSTEM BROUGHT RAINFALL AMOUNTS GENERALLY
FROM 1.5 TO 3.5 INCHES TO OLYMPIC MOUNTAINS EARLIER TODAY ALONG WITH
SNOW LEVELS 6000 FEET OR HIGHER. THIS RAIN WILL HAS DRIVEN THE
SKOKOMISH RIVER ABOVE FLOOD STAGE EARLY EVENING.
THE FRONT MOVED INLAND EARLIER THIS EVENING AND THE HEAVY RAINS HAVE
TRANSITIONED TO LIGHTER SHOWERS. WITH NO ADDITIONAL HEAVY RAINS
EXPECTED TONIGHT...THE SKOKOMISH RIVER SHOULD CREST LATE THIS
EVENING THEN SUBSIDE BELOW FLOOD STAGE EARLY THURSDAY MORNING.
FLOODING IS UNLIKELY ON ALL OTHER RIVERS IN THE FORECAST AREA FOR
THE NEXT 7 DAYS. SCHNEIDER
&&
.AVIATION...A COLD FRONT MOVED OVER THE CASCADES AROUND 03Z AND WILL
DISSIPATE TONIGHT. STRONG W FLOW ALOFT WILL CONTINUE TONIGHT WITH
MODERATE TO STRONG W-SW ONSHORE FLOW AT THE SURFACE. THE AIR MASS IS
MOIST BUT MIXING FROM THE ONSHORE FLOW HAVE PRODUCED A WIDE RANGE OF
CIGS FROM MVFR UP TO VFR ABOVE BKN050. WITH MODEST COOLING OVERNIGHT
AREAS OF STRATUS WILL INCREASE AFTER 10Z...PRODUCING AREAS OF MVFR
CONDITIONS WITH LOCAL IFR CIGS.
KSEA...MVFR CIGS BKN020-025 HAVE JUST FORMED AT KSEA AND THIS WILL
LIKELY CONTINUE THROUGH 12Z. WITH THE MOIST AIR MASS CONTINUING THE
MVFR CIGS WILL PROBABLY CONTINUE THROUGH 18Z...WITH IMPROVEMENT TO
VFR THURSDAY AFTERNOON. ONSHORE FLOW WILL KEEP GUST SSW WINDS 10-20
KT THROUGH TONIGHT...THEN WEAKENING THURSDAY. KAM
&&
.MARINE...THE COLD FRONT HAS MOVED ACROSS W WA AND SW-W ONSHORE FLOW
IS UNDERWAY. BURST OF WINDS THROUGH PUGET SOUND AND THROUGH THE
STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA WAS JUST BELOW GALE FORCE. WINDS IN PUGET
SOUND ARE EASING NOW THAT WESTERLY FLOW HAS PUSHED THROUGH THE
ENTIRE STRAIT. ONSHORE FLOW WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THURSDAY AS
THE SURFACE HIGH OFFSHORE TO THE SW BUILDS IN OVER THE REGION.
PRESSURE GRADIENTS SHOULD WEAKEN THURSDAY AFTERNOON. THE SURFACE
RIDGE SETTLES BRIEFLY OVER THE AREA LATE THURSDAY NIGHT/FRIDAY
MORNING FOR A PERIOD OF WEAK WINDS.
A WEAK FRONT WILL AFFECT MAINLY THE COASTAL WATERS FRIDAY BEFORE
WEAKENING AS IT MOVES INLAND. THIS LOOKS LIKE IT WILL GENERATE SCA
WINDS AT THE BEST OVER THE COASTAL WATERS. KAM
&&
.SEW WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
WA...FLOOD WARNING FOR THE SKOKOMISH RIVER IN MASON COUNTY.
.WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 PM PST THURSDAY
FOR THE NORTH CASCADES.
.HIGH SURF ADVISORY IN EFFECT FOR THE NORTH AND CENTRAL
COAST FROM FROM 10 AM THURSDAY TO 4 AM PST FRIDAY.
PZ...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY ALL WATERS.
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FOR ROUGH GRAYS HARBOR BAR.
YOU CAN SEE AN ILLUSTRATED VERSION OF THE FORECAST DISCUSSION AT
WWW.WEATHER.GOV/SEATTLE/GAFD/LATEST_WEBAFD.HTML
WWW.WEATHER.GOV/SEATTLE1 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
A location in western Whatcom county recorded 43 mph sustained wind.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Washington in 2012Every state in 2012This day in weather historyWarnings in Washington, January 2012
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 361418.