Powerful Thunderstorm Brings Lightning, Heavy Rain

A line of powerful thunderstorms that moved through the Puget Sound area triggered lightning, street flooding, power outages and traffic collisions during the morning commute on Wednesday.

The squall line of intense thunderstorms was marked in red and yellow on Stormtracker radar that showed rain falling up to 2 inches an hour in some places.

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Hail was reported in some North Seattle neighborhoods.

"A storm like this can cause flooding in a matter of minutes," said KIRO 7 meteorologist Sam Argier during live Stormwatch coverage on KIRO 7.

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The National Weather Service said the storm was capable of producing damaging winds in excess of 60 mph.

"Winds gusted to 58 mph at Paine Field in Everett as this storm moved through. This storm was located near just east of Snohomish and Granite falls, and moving east at 40 mph," the weather service said in its warning.

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Seattle City Light said its crews restored power after a midday outage that affected about 3,000 customers in North Seattle. The outage affected customers from Northeast 126th Street to the north, North 100 Street to the south, Fremont Avenue North to the west and 14th Avenue Northeast to the east. Most stores at the Northgate Mall were briefly without power.

Earlier, about 4,000 customers in North Seattle were without power, including Broadview-Thomson Elementary School, Seattle City Light told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.

Pooling water delayed traffic and triggered crashes.

In Belltown, cars kicked up rooster tails as drivers plowed through pools of water on First Avenue until firefighters cleared leaves from clogged storm drains.

Mercer Street was also flooded where it carries traffic under Aurora Avenue.

Meanwhile, in the mountains, a winter storm warning is in effect until noon on Friday for heavy snow. One to 3 feet of accumulation is expected by midday Friday, with the heaviest amounts in the North Cascades, the weather service said.