After being without power for almost 24 hours. After one of the worst storms to ever hit the Seattle area,
leaving at least 6 people dead and lots of people in despair in cold temperatures. I feel grateful.
For warmth, for light. Just for being. A shout out and a prayer for the people still without power.
All those families with small children. I feel you. I love you God be with you.


Storm Causes State Of Emergency

By Jonathan Martin and Sara Jean Green

Seattle Times staff reporters

King County Executive Ron Sims issued an emergency proclamation this morning after

supercharged winds of up to 70 miles an hour overnight knocked out power to about one million

people in greater Seattle.

Utilities across the region worked feverishly to restore lights and heat, but warned that hundreds

of thousands of homes in Seattle and its suburbs may remain dark into Saturday. Puget Sound

Energy warned of delays of up to five days.

As of 8 p.m. Friday about 86,000 Seattle City Light customers remained without power. At the

highest point Friday, nearly 175,000 customers were without electricity.

Gov. Christine Gregoire late this afternoon declared a state of emergency in Western

Washington. The proclamation covers Clallam, Clark, Cowlitz, Grays Harbor, Island, Jefferson,

Lewis, King, Mason, Pacific, Pierce, San Juan, Skagit, Snohomish, Thurston, Wahkiakum and

Whatcom counties.

The declaration authorizes the use of state resources, including the Washington National Guard,

to help local communities recover from the storm.

"We can not control the weather, but we can make sure that we offer as much support as

possible while families and communities work to recover from these storms," Gregoire said.


As storm winds died down this morning, government agencies and individuals began to grapple

with the damage and chaos from a storm that has killed at least six people..

In Seattle, hundreds of thousands of gallons of sewage mixed with rainwater was flushed into

Puget Sound after two critical parts of King County's wastewater system were damaged and

overwhelmed by flood runoff.

Major roads, including the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and

Hood Canal Bridge reopened after periodic closures.


The storm caused an unusual amount of damage the region's power infrastructure. Dozens of

transmission lines — the large power lines that transfer power from dams and other sources to

neighborhood substations — were knocked down in the storm, said Dorothy Bracken, a

spokeswoman for Puget Sound Energy.

PSE had dispatched a helicopter to pinpoint where trees had cut the transmission lines. PSE said

it needed to assess those failures before targeting "feeder" lines that flow out from substations to

neighborhoods.

Seattle City Light said a typical storm downs two or three feeder lines. Last night's storm cut 65;

49 were still not working this afternoon, said spokesman Peter Clarke.

Clarke said City Light expected as many as 50,000 home might still be without power at

midnight on Saturday.

"There will be people without power tonight and when we get down to small neighborhoods

there may be some of those that are out for more than 24 hours, " Clarke said.

PSE reported 700,000 customers – two thirds of its customer base — without power, most of

them in King County, said Bracken. In addition to most Eastside cities, Bracken said "all of

Whidbey Island is without power."

"This is a major storm with significant outages," she said. People living in the Cascade foothills

and other rural areas should expect to be without power for "four or five days or more," Bracken

said.

Meanwhile, Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon has declared a state of emergency to

"be able to respond more quickly and efficiently to those in need of County services and … to

seek federal reimbursement of these damages in the event that we receive another presidential

declaration."

The county's Department of Emergency Management opened its Emergency Operations Center

(EOC) Thursday night to prepare to respond to damage caused by the storm. Winds peaked

last night in the County at 76 mph. The south and south east portions of the County appear to

have been hit the hardest by storm.

As of this afternoon, there were 34 roads closed throughout Snohomish County. County roads

crews will be working with the PUD through the weekend to clear trees and tangled power lines

from county roadways. Up to the minute road closure information is available on the county's

website, www.snoco.org.

The EOC has coordinated emergency efforts throughout the county. The PUD reported as of

Friday afternoon 67,000 residents remain without electricity. PUD expects to have all power

restored in the next 2-3 days. Residents are reminded to stay clear of any downed power lines

as they can be extremely dangerous.


Seattle City Light crews worked to repair small power outrages that cropped up early Thursday

evening. But by midnight, as winds gusted to 50 mph, the workers were pulled from the job.

"We didn't have crews out because it was dangerous," Clarke said. "They can't work up high

and in their buckets when wind is blowing and trees were down. As soon as dawn hit we sent

our crews out."

PSE crews didn't begin repair work until 4 a.m., also because of fierce winds, Bracken said.

Several Seattle-area hospitals, including Providence, Children's and Swedish Medical Center

were relying on generators for a time after losing power.

In outlying areas, people could be without power for five days or more. All of Sultan was

blacked out most of the night. South and east Snohomish County appear to have been hit the

worst, and the PUD says it could be days before power is completely restored in the county.

Insurance companies said it was too early to assess damage from the storm, but Pemco reported

a huge volume of calls.

"So far, it feels like this is going to be bigger than the Inauguration Day storm," Pemco

spokesman Jon Osterberg said, referring to a January 1993 storm that's become the standard for

wind damage in Western Washington. "It's mainly trees on homes, trees coming down on fences,

just general wind damage."

Most Comcast cable customers lost service. A Sprint Nextel spokeswoman said that the

network in the Seattle and Portland area is experiencing some disruptions due to power outages.

Qwest reported few problems with phone service.

Power outages closed many regional school districts and some major employers, including

Microsoft, which asked employees to work at home.

Retail business tried to soldier though outages. Grocery and hardware store shelves were being

picked clean of food, batteries, generators, camping stoves and Duraflame fire logs. Though

much of downtown Bellevue remained dark, some Bellevue Square retailers intend to operate in

dim, natural light, said General Manager Robert Dallain.

Employees used battery-operated adding machines and paperwork for credit card transactions.

Downtown Seattle was not affected by the outages and no essential services — hospitals and

police and fire facilities — are without power, said City Light spokesman Clarke.

The north end of Seattle and the northern suburbs of Lake Forest Park, Shoreline and Richmond

Beach have been particularly hard-hit, Clarke said. To the south, Tukwila, Burien and White

Center have also had a number of outages.

Within the city, there are significant outages in the International District, Yesler Terrace, Beacon

Hill, west Wedgwood and Lake City. Parts of Capitol Hill, Ballard and a small section of

Fremont are lost power, Clarke said.

Mercer Island residents have just one way out of the city, Island Crest Way, and city officials

were advising people to stay home. The city said this may be the worst storm in memory for the

city. Officials had already logged 200 incidents, and during the 1993 Inauguration Day storm,

they logged just 50.

Some of the strongest winds in the region – up to 100 mph – were reported on the Long Beach

Peninsula. But officials reported no major damage or serious injuries.

"I've lived here all my life, and that was pretty amazing last night," Long Beach Police chief Flint

Wright said.

Vancouver Island reported 119 mile-per-hour winds, and Whistler ski resort got 20 inches of

snow in just 12 hours. Wenatchee's Mission Ridge ski resort was closed with 135 mph gusts. In

Spokane, 45,000 customers of Avista Utilities were without power, but no injuries and little

structural damage was reported.

In Oregon, the storm left more than 375,000 customers without power, and many were

expected to remain in the cold for days, The Oregonian newspaper reported.

And along coastal waters of mid-Oregon, the Coast Guard, a C-130 search plane and local fire

and rescue teams searched Friday for the missing three-man crew of a wrecked catamaran. The

crew had been transporting the catamaran from South Africa to Seattle

Amtrak Cascades service was cancelled today due to trees and mudslides blocking the tracks.

In Magnolia, the West Point waste-water treatment facility, which treats sewage from central,

north and suburban Seattle, shut down at 7:15 p.m. because of power outages. Millions of

gallons of untreated sewage and storm water were diverted out a pipe into the Puget Sound, said

Don Theiler, director of the county's wastewater treatment division. The plant was restarted at

8:20 a.m. today.

In West Seattle, a waste water pumping station near the Fauntleroy ferry dock failed, pumping

raw sewage into Puget Sound. Officials expect that plant to restart this evening.

Utility companies ask customers not to call to report outages because they say they are already

aware. However, if there is a downed power line, they ask that you report it.

"This is reminiscent of the Inaugural Day storm of 1993 when we had 700,000 customers

without power," said Bracken of PSE. "It took several days before we could get all the power

restored and we expect it to take several days this time."


Seattle Times staff reporters Sara Jean Green, Steve Miletich, Christine Willmsen, Keith Ervin,

Ralph Thomas, Amy Martinez and Ashley Bach.

Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company
[Edited 12/16/06 0:37am]

Hope Matt and Jess are ok

I hope they are all okay too. It was quite an ordeal.
The after effects continue. God be with them.
Whom'ever. Wher'ever.

I hope everyone is alright. I hope people are able to stay warm enough without resorting to dangerous heating methods We went through that in October and it was HORRIBLE.!! Many people died from carbon monoxide poisoning. We lost 30- 40% of our trees and now have more than 100 acres of 12 ft deep mulch which occasionally catches fire.. We actually are still not fully cleaned up from the storm. God help you if FEMA comes in. They paid some people, but not for most of the damages. There were so many rules about what they would cover it wasn't funny. They did make it easy to find them and fill out the applications they turned down.
[Edited 12/16/06 5:19am]

It's a new day. Even though some are still without power. People are more aware of each other.
Neighbors are helping neighbors. Everyone is coming out of this wiser, stronger.

Thousands in dark after Northwest storm
By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
5 minutes ago


SEATTLE - Residents of the Pacific Northwest struggled to stay warm Saturday after the worst windstorm in more than a decade knocked out power to more than 1.5 million homes and businesses and killed at least six people.

Nearly 700,000 customers in Washington and Oregon still had no power Saturday, and utilities said some might have to wait into next week for their lights to go back on.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire declared a state of emergency, and with temperatures expected to drop over the weekend, officials warned people not to use outdoor grills, propane heaters or other carbon monoxide-producing equipment indoors.

Firefighters in Kent found 33 people from four families suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning Friday night, fire Capt. Kyle Ohashi said. They had taken their barbecues inside to cook or heat their apartments as temperatures dipped into the 30s.

All were expected to survive after treatment, Ohashi said.

In Oregon, a family of six was sickened by carbon monoxide from a generator set up in a garage in Gresham, police said. Three children were hospitalized in critical condition late Friday, while one child and both parents were listed in good condition.

Wind gusted to a record 69 mph early Friday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, breaking the old mark of 65 mph set in 1993. Wind was clocked at 113 mph near Mount Rainier.

Power was knocked out at one of the airport's concourses, canceling dozens of flights. Flights were also canceled at Portland International Airport in Oregon, and Amtrak canceled service between Seattle and Portland because downed trees and mudslides blocked the tracks.

Two people were killed in Washington in traffic accidents involving windblown trees, while one died after getting trapped in her flooded basement. A fourth person was killed in his sleep by a tree that fell on his home. On the Oregon coast, an elderly couple died in a fire caused by candles they were using for light.

Puget Sound Energy, Washington's largest private utility, had restored power to about 200,000 customers overnight but 500,000 were still without power Saturday, company spokeswoman Dorothy Bracken said.

It would be "several days — definitely through the weekend," before everyone was restored, PSE spokeswoman Martha Monfried said. The utility had lost more than half of its transmission system, and crews struggled in the mountains to reach downed lines that carry the electricity from Columbia River dams.

More than 60,500 customers of Seattle City Light remained without power Saturday, down from a peak of 175,000, and 15,000 were still blacked out in the Snohomish County Public Utility District north of Seattle.

In Oregon, Portland General Electric said it had about 82,000 customers without power Saturday morning, and Pacific Power said about 32,500 of its customers still had no service.

The storm was the most intense to hit the region since the Inauguration Day storm of Jan. 20, 1993, which killed five people and caused about $130 million in damage, said Clifford F. Mass, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor.

They've been talking about this on the Weather Channel. I couldn't imagine being that cold and in the dark for days. That reminds me, I wonder if they've found those missing climbers yet.

luv4u said:

I'm sure they are. Most of our neighborhood didn't even lose power.

The wind was unbelievable, though. Totally crazy.

God I wish I'd been there; it all looks really beautiful.

It FOCKING SUCKS!!!!! I like in Alki (west Seattle). I'm typing this at my son's mothers' crib.) However, after seeing some of those pics, I feel fortunate to even have a powerless home. Best wishes to those who are without.

HereToRockYourWorld said:

where are you?

AvramsDad said:

I was wondering how badly Alki got torn up. I bet the wind was worse out there.

AvramsDad said:

Capitol Hill. My lights flickered a few times, but that's it. I feel very lucky.

Parts of the Hill did lose power for a while, but I think it's all restored now.

HereToRockYourWorld said:

I've never heard anything like it. T'was both exciting and a lil' scary. But no downed trees or power lines like in those pictures.

HereToRockYourWorld said:

Yeah, the hill is where I'm at now. Lucky bitches.
[Edited 12/16/06 13:48pm]

W. Seattle: my power finally came back on about 45 mins ago, stayed on for 25 mins, was out again for 10....

AvramsDad said:

I know, the sound was AMAZING.

And watching the trees across the street bend. . .I have a new respect for trees. I can't believe they're still standing.

AnotherLoverToo said:

where in w. seattle? I'm not excited about going back over there again to be in the cold darkness.

AvramsDad said:

It's the gays. All of that Fabulous keeps the lights on.

HereToRockYourWorld said:

AvramsDad said:

I'm in the southern part of W Seattle, near Westwood Village, just before you get to White Center

HereToRockYourWorld said:

Two skylights from townhomes next door blew off and hit my roof!!

AnotherLoverToo said:

Good gawd. Did they damage the roof?

HereToRockYourWorld said:

No, just bounced off and landed in the backyard--technically (luckily? ) they hit my neighbor's section (we live in separate townhomes which share one wall).

Back in effect!!

Hope everyone else is faring well. Peace.

AvramsDad said:

Half the power restored, 533,000 customers still powerless


By Jim Brunner
Seattle Times staff reporter


More than 533,000 homes and businesses remained without power today after the worst storm in more than a decade ripped through Western Washington, darkening entire towns, toppling trees into houses and killing at least six people.

While power could be restored over the weekend in most Seattle neighborhoods, some areas of King and Snohomish counties could be without electricity for several days.

By this morning, 460,000 Puget Sound Energy, 60,000 Seattle City Light and 13,000 Snohomish County Public Utility District customers were still without power. City Light crews hoped to restore at least 20,000 homes by midnight tonight.

But recovery efforts by utilities were slowed because the high winds damaged high-voltage transmission lines across the Cascade Mountains as well as smaller neighborhood power lines.

The storm peaked early Friday morning when the "poisonous tail" of a low-pressure system blew into the region from the southwest, University of Washington meteorologist Cliff Mass said.

The windstorm was the worst to hit the state since the Inauguration Day storm on Jan. 20, 1993, which killed six people, destroyed at least 79 homes and caused about $130 million in damage.

Like the 1993 storm, tales of Friday's storm will be retold for years by the thousands of Puget Sound-area residents who suffered through it. A tree cut a Mercer Island house in half. A sinkhole opened in West Seattle. Hardware and grocery stores saw a run on supplies from bread to generators and batteries.

The Seattle area should get somewhat of a reprieve from the high winds this weekend, forecasters say. Rain or showers are expected to diminish this weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

"It's going to be doggone pleasant weather, after what we've been through," said Ted Buehner, Weather Service meteorologist in Seattle.

Some insurance providers said that judging from the volume of calls rolling in, the damage from this storm could eclipse the 1993 mark.

"So far, it feels like this is going to be bigger than the Inauguration Day storm," Pemco spokesman Jon Osterberg said.

Winds gusted to 69 mph about 1 a.m. Friday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, breaking the mark of 65 mph set in 1993.

In terms of sheer wind power, the granddaddy remains 1962's infamous Columbus Day Storm, an extra-tropical cyclone that whipped the Seattle area with winds of up to 90 mph.

Hard-hit in Thursday and Friday's storm was Bellevue, where about 80 percent of the city, including downtown, was still without power by midday Friday.

"It's pretty amazing. We're just kind of paralyzed," said city spokesman Tim Waters, who predicted that power in some areas of the city could be out for several days.

At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, a power outage shut down most air traffic Friday afternoon.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported the outage at its station that monitors all air traffic within 25 miles of Seattle, according to Sea-Tac spokeswoman Rachel Garson. Some arrivals were rerouted and departures were held.

Garson said Friday night that there were still delays, but that things were slowly getting back to normal at the airport. She said all flights were expected to be on schedule by the end of the night.

Amtrak service between Seattle and Portland was mostly restored early today.

Metro Transit was back to normal service today, although some of the trolley routes with overhead electric wires were using diesel buses. Metro spokeswoman Linda Thielke said if trees are blocking roads, buses are detouring around the closures. She said there may be some delays, "but we're as normal as anyone can be in this situation."

Gov. Christine Gregoire late Friday afternoon declared a state of emergency in Western Washington.

The declaration authorizes the use of state resources, including the Washington National Guard, to help local communities recover from the storm.

The state's Emergency Management Division will be working this weekend on a survey of damage to homes, roads and public facilities for a possible application for federal disaster aid, spokesman Rob Harper said.

A federal declaration could help homeowners with flood damage not covered by homeowners insurance, and pay repair costs at facilities like King County's West Point wastewater-treatment plant.

While it's too early to tell if the storm damage was severe enough to qualify, Harper said the winds added to damage caused by recent snowstorms and flooding. "This has been one of the nastiest stretches of weather I've experienced, and I go back to the '50s in this state," Harper said. "This won't be forgotten quickly."

Deaths attributed to the storm included a Seattle woman who drowned when the basement of her Madison Valley home was flooded.

In Pierce County, two people died in separate accidents. One man died when his car hit a fallen tree; a woman died when her truck was crushed by a falling tree.

And a Grays Harbor County man died when the top of a tree snapped off in the wind and crashed into his trailer home, where he was sleeping.

Others narrowly escaped death or serious injury.

Dave Tempest and his wife, Kathy, were on opposite ends of their Mercer Island home Thursday night when a 130-foot fir tree crashed through their roof, splitting their house in two. One branch came to rest just a few feet from Kathy, who was watching TV on the couch.

The couple, both 56, spent the night with friends and then had a contractor weatherproof the roof and cut some of the branches Friday morning.

They weren't sure whether they could salvage the five-bedroom house in the 9000 block of Southeast 44th Street, where they've lived for more than 20 years. But they were happy that no one was hurt and that their two college-age children weren't home at the time.

"Once we realized we were both safe, that was the most important thing," said Dave Tempest, a physician at Swedish Medical Center. "The rest is just bricks and mortar."

The storm savaged the region's power infrastructure. Dozens of transmission lines — the large power lines that transfer power from dams and other sources to neighborhood substations — were knocked down by high winds, said Dorothy Bracken, a spokeswoman for Puget Sound Energy.

PSE sent a helicopter to pinpoint where trees had cut the transmission lines. The utility needed to assess those failures before targeting "feeder" lines that flow out from substations to individual neighborhoods.

Seattle City Light said a typical storm downs just a few feeder lines. Thursday night's storm cut 65, and by Friday afternoon, 49 were still not working, spokesman Peter Clarke said.

The storm spurred a run on groceries and supplies such as heaters, generators, batteries and chain saws.

At a North Seattle Lowe's, six people were waiting in line when the store opened at 6 a.m., store manager Jim Corbett said. The store sold out of its stock of 25 generators by 7 a.m. "We're getting slammed," Corbett said.

Some area retailers benefited from the storm as residents sought out warm, lighted places. At Northgate Mall in Seattle, shopping traffic was 50 percent heavier than normal.

A Bartell Drugs in Renton had a handwritten sign proclaiming "We Are Open!" But barely. An employee pried open the electric sliding doors each time a customer needed entry. Workers escorted shoppers down aisles, using flashlights to illuminate items. They wrote all transactions down by hand.

In addition to the wind, the massive rainfall flooded streets and overwhelmed sewer systems.

In Seattle, hundreds of thousands of gallons of sewage mixed with rainwater was flushed into Puget Sound after part of King County's wastewater system was damaged and overwhelmed by flood runoff.

Contractors said they were overwhelmed with calls by homeowners seeking repairs.

"I haven't seen anything like this since the Inauguration Day storm in '93. Our phone has been ringing off the hook," said roofing contractor Ron Haider of Haider Construction in Mountlake Terrace. "We've had tree limbs falling on roofs, shingles blown off, roofs damaged and leaking and one skylight that was pulled apart by the wind."

Haider said some of his crews had difficulty getting to the homes that need repair because of streets blocked by downed trees, particularly on Mercer Island. "Right now anybody in the roofing business is getting more calls than they can get to right away."

The latest storm clobbered a region already drenched with record rainfall in November, capped off by a snowstorm.

The succession of bad weather occurred to Doug Funkhouser of Camano Island as he spent 4-½ hours driving home Thursday night due to the intense rain, standing water on Interstate 5 and traffic from the Seahawks game.

Once home, Funkhouser lost power about 8 p.m. Dozens of trees are down and blocking roads on the island. Many of the trees had snapped off about halfway up their trunks.

It was the third time in three weeks that a storm has cut power to Camano Island. Last time, Funkhouser was without power for three days while other residents didn't get their lights back for almost a week.
[Edited 12/16/06 18:14pm]

AnotherLoverToo said:

That is quite an event. Nothin that bad happened this way. Just cold air and no lights.
Candles are cute. But the tempertures not too. I'm glad the lights are back on. For real.

Forecasters Say The Worst Is Over... At Least For Now

By Warren King
Seattle Times staff reporter

We're in for a real break in the weather: No more fierce winds and the chance of showers is diminishing throughout the weekend.

Today it will be mostly cloudy wth a high of 41 and low of 30. On Sunday the high will be 39 degrees and a low of 32.

"It will be quite a benign weekend," University of Washington meteorologist Cliff Mass said.

And don't worry about a return to the snow and icy misery of late November, said Ted Buehner of the National Weather Service in Seattle.

Thursday night's big blow surpassed the Inauguration Day storm of 1993 in the number of customers who lost power: about 1 million, compared with 700,000 back then. More people live here now, sure, but that's still a lot of darkness and coffee-less homes.

Wind speeds were comparable to Inauguration Day, and in some places higher, Mass said.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport had gusts to 69 mph early Friday, the highest in at least 30 years. But at the UW, they were 55 mph, compared with 88 mph on Inauguration Day.

This week's windstorm wasn't as powerful as the Inauguration Day storm that lashed Western Washington on Jan. 20, 1993.

Thursday and Friday: Winds reaching 69 mph at Sea-Tac International Airport at one point knocked out power to a million homes and businesses, toppled trees and killed at least six people.

Jan. 20, 1993: Wind gusts up to 88 mph ripped across the Puget Sound area, tearing off roofs, prompting the closure of both Lake Washington floating bridges, knocking out power to 700,000 customers in Western Washington, and killing six people.

Thanksgiving 1983: High winds gusting to 70 mph tore off roofs and cut power to 270,000 customers in Western Washington.

Oct. 12, 1962: The Columbus Day Storm — technically an extra-tropical cyclone — ravaged the Northwest with gusts to 90 mph in the Seattle area and 100 mph at Renton Airport. Damage throughout Washington, Oregon, California and British Columbia approached $280 million. At least 46 deaths in Washington, Oregon and California were blamed on the storm.

Other whopper gusts were recorded at Destruction Island, off Jefferson County, 81 mph; Tatoosh Island, off Cape Flattery, 78 mph; Smith Island, off Whidbey Island, 76 mph; and Padilla Bay, Skagit County, 85 mph.

Mass and Buehner said the band of very heavy rain late Thursday afternoon also was remarkable. It was quick and fierce, causing unexpected flash flooding in the city. Nearly an inch of rain fell at Sand Point between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m.

"I've never seen urban flooding like that in Seattle," said Mass, who has lived here since 1981.

The storm moved in just as meteorologists had predicted.

The low-pressure center came out of the southwest and passed over the middle of Vancouver Island. But the long, "poisonous tail" of changing pressures that followed the center caused the high winds that lashed Western Washington.

The National Weather Service said a week ago that in the equatorial Pacific, there are intensifying early signs of El Niño, a weather phenomenon that occurs every three to seven years, and brings milder and drier weather to the Northwest in the winter. But the weather of the past six weeks has some scientists reluctant to predict the worst is over. And they're wondering if some other weather force is at work.

"It could be something we haven't picked up on is happening," Nate Mantua, a UW climate expert, told The Associated Press.

Mike Halpert, forecast chief of the NWS Climate Prediction Center in Maryland, said more significant signs of El Niño often don't occur until January, February or March. He's still convinced it's on the way.

Meanwhile, the month-and-a-half of dramatic weather in Western Washington — rain, snow, ice, wind — has kept meteorologists here jumping. They're happy for a break.