SPOKANE, Wash. — High winds hit the Inland Northwest on Monday afternoon, leading to widespread damage and tens of thousands of power outages.
The National Weather Service issued a Wind Advisory on Sunday for the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene area from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., then again on Monday from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. The strongest wind gust in Spokane was 62 mph, with gusts of 61 mph reported in Coeur d'Alene. Athol's strongest wind gust was 72 mph.
Downed trees fell on homes and cars across the Inland Northwest and blocked roads. Thousands of people in Spokane and North Idaho remain without power on Tuesday and the outages could last for multiple days.
Winds have clamed down significantly on Tuesday but temperatures have dropped. The rest of the week will trend about 20 degrees colder than where it began. With cold temperatures in place, an incoming storm expected on Thursday will bring the best chance at the first accumulating snow of the season in Spokane.
Here is a timeline of events that happened during the windstorm around the Inland Northwest:
Around 3 p.m.: Avista, Northern Lights and Kootenai Electric customers started to lose power.
Around 4 p.m.: SR 20/Sherman Pass was blocked in both directions due to at least 4-5 trees that fell from high winds. It was cleared in about an hour.
5:30 p.m.: There were nearly 40,000 customers in Spokane and North Idaho without power.
5:45 p.m.: Reported wind gusts of 50-65 mph in Spokane.
6 p.m.: The 'O' in the Fox Theater sign fell off and onto the ground. No one was injured.
6:15 p.m.: Wind speeds reached up to 72 mph in Athol, ID.
7 p.m.: There were power lines down on S. Woodruff Rd. and E Holman Rd., according to the Spokane Fire Department.
Here are some viewer photos of damage caused by the wind.
