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Strong winds broke out in parts of the Pacific Northwest Tuesday and Wednesday, prompting high wind warnings for parts of western Washington and northwest Oregon, injuring one person in Portland and blowing trees onto houses in the Seattle-Tacoma area. At least 66,000 customers were still without power Wednesday morning in the two states as winds continued to knock down trees and power lines.

The winds are the result of the same winterlike air mass that has plunged all the way south to the Gulf Coast and eastward into the Ohio Valley behind a powerful cold front. A powerhouse high-pressure zone over western Canada and the northern U.S. is also trying to literally push this frigid but shallow air through gaps in the Rocky Mountains and from there into the Northwest, where it faces a second obstacle in the form of the Cascade Range.

The high, whose central pressure was 1051 millibars (31.03 inches of mercury) over Canada's Northwest Territories Tuesday afternoon, has proven plenty strong enough to do just that. Winds began howling before sunrise Tuesday in the Columbia River Gorge just east of Portland, Oregon -- the most prominent gap in the Cascades, cutting a 4,000-foot-deep valley through the mountains.

Winds gusted according to a Weather Underground personal weather station. Powerful gusts continued throughout the day and night, and some 26 hours later Crown Point clocked a 79-mph gust at 6:22 a.m. Wednesday.

Farther west, sustained winds of 30 to 35 mph with gusts as high as 53 mph buffeted Portland International Airport, on the banks of the Columbia River, for much of the day Tuesday. Despite the rough winds, most afternoon flight arrivals to and departures from the airport were on schedule, according to the airport's website.

However, a bicyclist was seriously injured on Naito Parkway in downtown Portland Tuesday afternoon after being hit by a large tree felled by the strong winds.

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