Most of the electricity was restored on Monday morning after the night storm hit the Spokane area
Most of the electricity that was lost in the north-west of the country during a strong storm on Monday was restored overnight.
More than 40,000 electrical customers were without power late Monday after gusts of 50 mph (50 mph) hit east Washington and north Idaho.
As of 7:30 am, approximately 1,600 Avista customers were without power, compared to approximately 17,000 customers without power just after midnight.
More than 1,500 Inland Power and Light customers around 7:30 a.m., compared to more than 6,300 around 10:00 p.m. on Sunday.
The wind peaked at around 8:15 p.m. last night with gusts of 47 mph at Spokane Regional Airport, said Joey Clevenger, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. The weather service received reports of gusts of 53 miles per hour at Sandpoint and Athol.
Around 11 p.m. the winds began to slow, Clevenger said. The wind report from the weather service expired at 2 a.m.
The wind storm matched the strong winds in March but was weaker than the storm in January which left 100,000 people without electricity and killed one woman.
As of Monday morning, the storm didn’t appear to cause as many trees to uproot or fall branches as previous storms. Clevenger said this was partly due to less moisture before the storm. Moist soil makes it easier to uproot the trees.
“It wasn’t a lengthy wind event,” said Clevenger.
In northern Idaho, 3,527 Northern Lights customers were without power at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, up from nearly 16,000 on Sunday evening.
About 125 Kootenai Electric Cooperative customers were also without power, compared to about 8,400 on Sunday night.
The Pend Oreille district reported about 44 customers without electricity at around 8 a.m. on Monday.
While the worst winds had passed, Monday was still forecast to be weak, Clevenger said.
Temperatures were forecast in the upper 50’s or lower 60’s.
“We’ll recover quickly and by Wednesday we should be back around the 70s mark,” said Clevenger.