Officials say there could be gusts up to 60 miles per hour during a windstorm as it cross the Seattle area Thursday.

The National Weather Service has issued a high wind warning for Seattle and the interior lowland through Thursday night:

TIMING…Winds will increase rapidly Thursday morning with the strongest gusts expected for a few hours Thursday afternoon. * IMPACTS…Snapped tree branches and downed trees along with some power outages.

In its latest update, the local NWS forecast says to expect the rain and strongest winds to begin arriving around 10 AM in Seattle.

A windstorm last Friday snapped trees across Capitol Hill but the area was free from major power outages while thousands in the city were without electricity from fallen wires and downed limbs.

UPDATE 12:25 PM: Some 9,000 customers were reported without power across Capitol Hill and surrounding areas, part of nearly 30,000 reported across the city. Around the Hill, branches and wires were reported down along 33rd Ave and there were multiple reports of sparking wires and transformers including along 23rd Ave north of Madison. Seattle City Light is updating outages here but did not have an estimate for restoration for the areas around Capitol Hill as of this update.

UPDATE 3:42 PM: City Light is telling customers its current estimate for restoration of power for the bulk of Capitol Hill’s outages is 7 PM.

UPDATE 7:55 PM: Crews have restored power to all but around a dozen individual customers around the Hill. Meanwhile, a segment of customers that was among the first in the city to lose power this morning near the shores of Lake Washington south of Madison Park remained without power as of Thursday night. According to City Light, around 1,000 customers in that area won’t see restoration until Friday.

On E Prospect near 17th Ave E, neighborhood kids will surely be sad to learn that the large “treasure tree” cedar sequoia that has protected a community selection of free toys and knick knacks at its base over the years tumbled in the morning winds. The big tree narrowly missed street signs and a car parked nearby. There were no reported injuries and some neighbors were making the best of things by grabbing some of the now abundant holiday greenery.

The CHS official E Prospect windometer reading as of 10:51 AM: WINDY pic.twitter.com/giW5Cl4c4B

— jseattle (@jseattle) December 20, 2018

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