Powerful winter storm leaves over 1.5 million people without power across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho
A powerful winter storm hit the Pacific Northwest and parts of the inland Northwest on December 17, 2025, causing widespread power outages across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. At least 596 830 electricity customers were left without power, an impact estimated to affect approximately 1.4–1.6 million people across the region, as strong winds damaged power infrastructure and disrupted services.
Satellite image acquired at 20:10 UTC on December 16, 2025. Credit: NOAA/GOES-West, RAMMB/CIRA, The Watchers
A significant winter storm affected large portions of the Pacific Northwest and inland Northwest on Wednesday, December 17, resulting in widespread power outages across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Strong winds and heavy precipitation caused damage to electrical infrastructure, leaving hundreds of thousands of electricity customers without service.
National Weather Service (NWS) observations showed extremely strong winds across parts of western Washington during the early hours of December 17.
The highest measured gust reached 180 km/h (112 mph) at Alpental Ski Area around 02:00 LT, while Snoqualmie Pass recorded a gust of 132 km/h (82 mph) at the same time.
Coastal and inland lowland locations also experienced severe winds, including 114 km/h (71 mph) at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station and Paradise on Mount Rainier, 111 km/h (69 mph) at New Dungeness Lighthouse and Dungeness Bay near Sequim, and 108 km/h (67 mph) at the Westport tide gauge late on December 16.
Additional gusts exceeding 105 km/h (65 mph) were recorded at Smith Island, Greenwater, and several exposed coastal and mountain sites.
Outage aggregation data showed that 596 836 electricity customers were without power across the three states, as of 06:30 PST (14:30 UTC) on December 17. Washington accounted for a total of 377 538 outages, Oregon reported 189 986 while Idaho recorded 29 312 outages as the storm moved through the region.
Based on standard emergency assessment practices, the customer outages are estimated to have affected approximately 1.4–1.6 million people, including residential, commercial, and institutional users.
In Washington, outages were concentrated primarily in western parts of the state. The most affected counties included Clark, Pierce, Snohomish, King, Thurston, Island, Grays Harbor, and Lewis. Puget Sound Energy, the state’s largest utility provider, reported more than 140 000 customers without power at the peak of the storm.
Widespread outages were reported across both urban and rural areas of Oregon, with significant impacts observed in the Willamette Valley and the Portland metropolitan region, where Portland General Electric and Pacific Power experienced extensive service disruptions. Several regional and rural utilities also reported outages caused by downed trees and damaged distribution lines.
In Idaho, power outages were reported mainly in the northern and western parts of the state. Although the number of affected customers was lower than in coastal states, strong winds and falling trees damaged power lines, and restoration efforts were complicated in some areas by difficult terrain and ongoing weather conditions.
High wind warnings were in effect across much of the affected region, with wind conditions capable of causing prolonged power disruptions and hazardous conditions for repair crews.
Additional impacts from the storm included transportation disruptions due to fallen trees and debris, as well as localized closures of schools and public facilities where electricity had not been restored. Emergency management agencies advised residents to avoid downed power lines and hazardous travel conditions.
“A powerful storm will shift from the Pacific Northwest across the Northern Plains to the Great Lakes Wednesday into Thursday,” NWS meteorologists said.
Low elevation rain and mountain/Northern Plains snow will combine with high winds, resulting in widespread impacts. Blizzard conditions are expected in the Washington Olympics and Cascades on Wednesday, and possible in the northern Plains on Wednesday night into Thursday.
The December 17 outage event followed several days of heavy rainfall that caused historic flooding and saturated soils across parts of the region. While the event caused significant impacts in some areas, widespread power outages on December 17 were primarily driven by wind-related damage rather than river flooding.
Restoration priorities are focused on critical infrastructure and large outage clusters. Officials said that repairs could extend into the evening or later in areas where hazardous weather conditions persist.
I'm a dedicated researcher, journalist, and editor at The Watchers. With over 20 years of experience in the media industry, I specialize in hard science news, focusing on extreme weather, seismic and volcanic activity, space weather, and astronomy, including near-Earth objects and planetary defense strategies. You can reach me at teo /at/ watchers.news.
Commenting rules and guidelines
We value the thoughts and opinions of our readers and welcome healthy discussions on our website. In order to maintain a respectful and positive community, we ask that all commenters follow these rules.