Update - Sat 8:25 pm & 8:34 pm

The worst of the storm is past us.  Pressure at the Bellingham airport is rising and the center of the storm is now moving further from Bellingham.  We dodged a bullet this evening.  The center of the storm on a path towards the north east, passed over Barkley Sound on the west side of Vancouver Island about 7 pm and is now entering the Straits of Georgia up by Texada Island.  The storm center is falling apart as it crosses the hilly island and will reduce to just rain in the next couple hours.   

Bellingham airport reported gusts to 35 mph at 7 pm and 43 at 8 pm.  That is probably as high as the wind will go for Whatcom County, with the exception of possibly Point Roberts.  Vancouver area is reporting winds of in the 30 mph range, and they are closer by 50 miles to the center of the storm.

Here is an 8:04 pm article in the Seattle Times confirming the above.  The storm simply never reached the intensity forecasted on Thursday and Friday.  

Update - Sat 5:45 pm

Radar shows the low moving into the Olympic Penninsula and towards Victoria.  Bellingham, according to Cliff Mass, may still get hit with wind gusts over 70 mph.  We should see winds start to climb dramatically at 7 pm - if the storm passes close to us.  Else, if it takes a more northerly path then we may feel little wind increase. 

A suggestion.  Charge your phones, tablets for use in an extended electrical outage, and find your flashlights now. 

The radar screen shot above is from this website. As you can see, this storm looks like mini hurricane.  

Original posted Fri eve.

Cliff Mass, the properly celebrated weather professor at the University of Washington, is our go to guy when a storm threatens the Pacific Northwest. Tip posted on Wednesday, citing Cliff and linking to his website. And we got hit with two storms since. I'm doing the same here.

The third storm, scheduled to hit Bellingham Saturday between 5 pm and 7 pm, is even stronger - but it covers a smaller area. Thus, it could miss us and we might just have heavy wind. Folks were taking no chances on Friday, as super markets got raided for bottled water, milk, and batteries. We know the storm is coming. Even if the details escape us.

Which brings us back to Cliff Mass.  His weather blog is must reading for all who want to get the best forecast.  He says the track of Saturday's storm is uncertain. The projected track is for it to pass just west of Bellingham and sock us with wind gusts exceeding 60 mph and maybe 70. But if it passes a bit further west, then we may have just 30 to 40 mph winds.

The graphic above is lifted from Cliff Mass' blog on Friday. He says he will update his forecast on Saturday. If you enjoy the storms even while preparing for them, then his blog is the source.