Update 11:30 p.m.: Thunder, lightening and hail now, so loud it woke us up — an amazing storm to kick off the season.
Earlier: We don’t have to tell you, it’s very windy out there tonight. Up in Shoreline, a man was killed when he was hit by a falling tree. Here in Ballard, driving winds knocked down a power line on 32nd Ave. between 77th and 80th this evening, closing the street and temporarily blocking two Metro buses.
Power is out at one home along the street, and firefighters ask that neighbors there stay inside to avoid contact with the wires. See wind damage? Please post in comments below.
edit: (Bad joke about wind damage removed)
edit: I posted the joke about the extent of damage before the report of someone being killed was added. I don't think I'd want to run across a joke as the first comment after someone loses their life. My condolences to the man's family.
LOVE this weather.
Wires down in Magnolia, too: 3254 31st Ave W.
Thank you very much for sharing that info, Silver. I'm in Magnolia. I was wondering what was going on, and my dog was getting a little freaked out over here.
There were several huge flashes of green light coming from Magnolia about 10 minutes ago. I noticed all the lights in that area went out then too. It was pretty incredible! The whole sky was lit up!
Ya sure! Now there's another fire response nearby. I'm going over to the Magnolia blog to post it.
Makes me happy a bunch of us on our street went in together and had an arborist trim all the tall trees on the street a few weeks ago!
Also while it's a real pain to do please take the time to clean up the fallen leaves. Left unraked they can clog storm drains and cause street flooding. They can also be a safety hazard for pedestrians (and potential liability for homeowners).
Just alarms going off.
Somebody once told me that the color of light emitted by an exploding transformer is related to the kind of gas used inside it. Anyone out there know if this is true?
did any body see 3 giant blue flashes of light coming from magnolia around 7:30 pm. It was the strangest thing i've ever seen. Somebody in front of us drove in to a tree on 15th after it lit up the sky. I think he was really hurt. Please if any one saw this, share your thoughts!!!
yea i saw it too. Was it a transformer. It looked crazy. The car in front of us crashed right afterwards!!
If I remember correctly – don't house alarms sometimes go off when there are power surges from the power going off and coming back on suddenly?
That's too bad that the driver ran into a tree. Has anyone heard if (s)he is ok? I've never seen a transformer explode, but I did hear one hit by lightening about 200 feet from my apartment years ago. It was so loud I literally thought my double-paned windows were going to shatter. Scared the heck out of me.
West Seattle has wires down, too.
Dispatch to firefighter, “Can you tell if the wires are hot?”
Firefighter to Dispatch, ” Not without touching them!”
Check this out: What causes a transformer explosion to be green?
Ha! Fireman humor.
More cool power flash info.
Totally nuts. The light pole in front of my apartment is looking a little wobbly. Storm season is here once again.
Thanks Silver!
Yes, and burglar alarms can go off when the wind rattles window and door sensors!
Do you think we're going to get crazy snow like last year? I doubt it but at the same time I can't help but wonder …
Ack! Hope not. I fall down easily. ;-)
No, I was only referencing the wind storms, not the snow storms (I don't even wanna think about snow and ice yet!)
It is an El Nino year so we should get a lot of storms, rain and grey but the snow shouldn't hit like it did last year.
Ok 10 minutes after I posted this the hail, lightning and thunder roll in. What do I know?
this is the biggest storm i've seen in seattle. Lighting is about 4 blocks away from our house.
Hearing reports of lightning strikes, and roof/tree fires around the city.
Right now I can see distant flashes out past Capitol Hill.
Man! That must be what it's like to live in Kansas!
We just six lightning strikes within about a five minute period here right next to Carkeek. It was unbelievable!
Even now, I can still hear thunder moving north of us.
Emergency crews are reporting that the lights are out in North Seattle.
According to the Western Washington Radar Loop the worst may be past us now.
=yaaaaaawn= yeah, that thunder and hail woke me up too. Now I'm wide awake. Sigh. It WAS pretty impressive though. The hail was actually almost as loud as the thunder for a minute, the way it was roaring down on the whole house and banging up against the west facing windows. I went in my daughter's room thinking she'd be scared and all she did was grumble, “It's so loud and I'm sleepy!” then, “You. Stay!”
Well, you did say “storms, rain and grey”! I remember being in a thunder storm where the lightening hit in the parking lot outside my hotel room and I opened the curtains to see five inches of snow. I'd never seen a thunder storm and snow before. This one tonight was quite a doozy. Reminded me of the storms when we lived in Georgia.
I've lived in Seattle the majority of my life and this is only the second time I've ever seen lightning strike so close to the city. The other time was something like 1999 – the time where the transformer blew up outside my apartment as referenced in an earlier comment. I know that a lot of damage can come from these big storms but at the same time the kid in me thinks they're really exciting!
pretty wild – the cat wasn't very happy about the thunder, thats for sure.
Growing up in Kansas, I loved thunder storms, but frequently slept through them. Now being in Seattle for a few years, (after a stint in CA), I've become rather sensitive to thunder apparently. And this storm was epic!!! It actually woke me up – the flash, instantaneous thunder, and hail on the window – absolutely awesome! And Silver – yes – this was very similar to the storms in Kansas. How I miss them!
I saw the last of the three blue flashes after my son told me to look toward the southern sky as he'd seen the previous two.
VERY WEIRD! I've never seen anything like it. Extremely bright, and smurf blue (not green as others have reported).
needless to say, I won't accuse my son of crying wolf again!
Well, worst for a few hours anyway.
I just heard on the radio that we have an 80% chance of thunderstorms today.
But having lived in CA and here you probably sleep through earthquakes now ;)
I guess I wasn't imagining it, the lightening really was that close. The cats were freaked (Dash did his 'thundering herd' impression).
Former resident of “Tornado Alley” (aka central Texas) here. I thought Mother Nature was a mean ol' broad back home, but, boy, what a grump she was last night!
Things might be bigger in Texas (and sadder, given yesterday's tragedy), but last night's storm was no slouch in the scary-weather department. I'm hoping today doesn't bring us a repeat. Stay safe, everybody.
Just heard some more thunder…
Yes, I saw it while I was coming down the Phinney Ridge hill towards Ballard. I couldn't figure it out. Is the conclusion that it was a transformer going (or should I continue to think “maybe aliens”)?
Back to Briansutherland 18 hours ago…if you saw the car hit the tree, why were you wondering if the driver was hurt? Oh, didn't you stop?? Nice. I do hope she/he is OK.
there was already a cop there and it was bumper to bumper traffic, an ambulance was already on the way too. But thanks pointing that out : )