High Wind Warning for Christmas Eve Day, damaging winds expected

Seattle weather: Windy and rainy Christmas Eve

FOX 13 Seattle Meteorologist Claire Anderson has your latest western Washington weather forecast.

A large upper level low is just offshore of northern California and is slowly moving northward into Wednesday. The strong system will move along the I-5 corridor right into western Washington, bringing a strong round of winds for Christmas Eve Day.

A large upper level low is just offshore of northern California and is slowly moving northward into Wednesday.

A High Wind Warning and Wind Advisory will go into effect Wednesday morning through the evening for strong damaging wind gusts. Winds will start to get breezy out of the east for the cascade foothills on Wednesday morning, then will switch to southerly winds as the low moves further north. We could see downed trees, broken branches and power outages due to the strong winds.

A High Wind Warning and Wind Advisory will go into effect Wednesday morning through the evening for strong damaging wind gusts. (FOX 13 Seattle)

The timing of this event has started to come more in line with the strongest winds between noon and 5pm, and peaking around the central Puget Sound around 3pm. Winds will pick up suddenly and move through rather quickly from south to north, moving out by the later evening hours.

The timing of this event has started to come more in line with the strongest winds between noon and 5pm, and peaking around the central Puget Sound around 3pm.

Wind gusts by 8pm will be breezy, but below advisory or warning levels, still around 20-30 mph. Winds will continue to ease overnight into Thursday.

Wind gusts by 8pm will be breezy, but below advisory or warning levels.

Scattered showers will also be around for Wednesday with highs in the upper 40s to low 50s.

Scattered showers will also be around for Wednesday with highs in the upper 40s to low 50s.

Scattered showers will continue Thursday and Friday, but much calmer conditions. We will see high pressure build in for the weekend for drier skies and cooler temperatures.