WASHINGTON — Cleanup is underway and things are starting to bounce back to normal after high winds pummeled the D.C. area on Friday.
So how does this weather event compare to others in our area?
“Although a storm-to-storm comparison hasn’t been completed yet, the National Weather Service agrees that we haven’t had winds this strong, for this long, since Hurricane Sandy in 2012,” said Storm Team 4’s Matt Ritter.
Ritter said the strongest gust was clocked at Dulles Airport at 71 mph, which is just below hurricane force of 74 mph.
“Wind gusts of 50 to 70 mph — bad enough on their own,” Ritter said. “But several hours in a row and sustained winds of 20 to 30 mph all day, that just puts a lot of wear and tear on the trees.”
And the trees took a beating.
“A lot of trees just gave up after that much wind for so long, and there were a lot of power lines in the way on their way to the ground,” Ritter said.
At one point, more than 500,000 utility customers were without power.
