Strong winds whip through Western Washington, leaving thousands without power Tuesday

More than 130,000 people across Western Washington remained without power Tuesday morning after a storm with winds up to highway speeds ripped through the region overnight.

Boeing Field reported wind gusts of 60 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service in Seattle, and stronger winds were expected to continue through Tuesday morning.

Winds hit 52 miles per hour at Sea-Tac International Airport early Tuesday morning. That's 1 mile per hour shy of a record for February, and the strongest winds recorded in February at Sea-Tac in almost 20 years.

Crews were out in force Tuesday to clean up trees and branches that blocked roads across Seattle neighborhoods and knocked out power.

Traffic on southbound Aurora Avenue was down to one lane south of the Aurora Bridge after a transformer fire shut down the bridge early Tuesday morning.

WSDOT reported fallen trees partially blocking the eastbound offramp of State Route 18 at Weyerhaueser Way.

In Seattle, transportation officials reported downed trees in multiple locations and warned drivers to expect closures and delays and to avoid blocked areas.

Seattle City Light reported multiple outages Tuesday morning impacting 23,000 customers. Those numbers were reduced to 6,900 by 11 a.m.

Puget Sound Energy said 113,000 customers remained without power as of 9:15 a.m. Tuesday. The utility said Kitsap County sustained the most damage, with outages extending through much of PSE's service area.

Field crews reported downed wires, damaged poles, and impacted transmission lines.

"We understand how difficult it is to be without power," PSE said in a statement. "Our crews are working as quickly as they can to safely assess damage and make repairs to equipment."

High winds are expected to diminish Tuesday afternoon.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was updated at 11:38 a.m. Tuesday to include the latest outage totals from Seattle City Light.