After several severe storm warnings and the canceling of many community events, the final numbers show gusts reached 70 miles per hour on the coast and 40 in the interior of Western Washington. Eastsound experienced wind gusts up to 32 mph on Friday, and 39 mph on Saturday. As for the severe weather warning, most islanders are asking, “Where did the storm go?”
According to weather expert Cliff Mass, “this was not a failure so much of the models, but of communication of uncertainty.My profession has to stop providing the worst case or most probable weather evolution, but provide society with full probabilistic guidance. Yesterday was a good example of the failure mode when we do not.”
Check out his blog for updates at cliffmass.blogspot.com.