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High Wind Warnings: Today's weather a 'textbook' windstorm for Spokane

With wind gusts up to 60mph, this is yet another November windstorm for Spokane.

SPOKANE, Wash. — The late fall and winter seasons can sometimes be windstorm season for the Spokane region. Monday's event is very typical in terms of windstorms and a near textbook example of weather conditions required.

A strengthening low pressure area that travels straight eastward through southern British Columbia or northern Washington is the driving force of strong and violent winds. That is exactly the weather setup today as a low pressure is moving through British Columbia with a tailing cold front, advancing through Washington at about 60 mph.

A windstorm is generally defined by a weather system that produces strong winds but isn't directly tied to another type of high wind event, such as a severe thunderstorm, tornado, hurricane, or galestorm.

Credit: KREM 2 Weather

Wind gusts are already being reported at 55 mph in central and eastern Washington with High Wind Warnings in effect until 10 p.m. tonight for the potential for damaging winds through that hour.

This is comparable to other windstorms we've experienced recently. Earlier this year, January 2021, a wind storm had wind speeds up to 71 mph in Spokane and destroyed hundreds of trees.

Of course, many remember the destructive windstorm in November of 2015. Again, winds maxed out at 71mph in Spokane. That event left well over 100,000 people without power in a region defining event.

   

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