Wind batters Whatcom County, heavy rain to come

Winds reached speeds of nearly 50 mph Thursday afternoon in Whatcom County, and the next two days should bring heavy rain as a storm rips through Western Washington.

Bellingham International Airport reported wind gusts of 46 mph around 3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12. One person reported at 3 p.m. that a gust of 52 mph knocked down a tree on Noon Road that narrowly missed his house, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Johnny Burg.

Puget Sound Energy reported a few outages around Whatcom County, affecting more than 1,500 customers. Most of those outages had been resolved by 5 p.m. Thursday.

A high wind warning remained in effect until 10 p.m. Thursday. On Friday, southerly winds of 35 mph are expected but should not be as strong as Thursday’s gusts. The wind advisory is set to expire at around 4 p.m. Friday.

The storm moving in from the northwest is expected to bring more than 3 inches of rain to Bellingham from Thursday night through Saturday. The Cascades could get up to 10 inches of rain.

Mount Baker was forecasted to get up to 11 inches of snow Thursday before the precipitation turns into rain.

Heavy rain in the mountains would cause rivers to flood. The Nooksack River should have some minor flooding Friday night or Saturday morning, according to the NWS.

This story was originally published November 12, 2015 at 10:11 AM with the headline "Wind batters Whatcom County, heavy rain to come."