SEATTLE — SEATTLE - The strongest Northwest storm of the season blew in early Monday on winds that gusted to more than 80 mph on the coast, knocking out power in places and creating blizzard-like conditions in the mountains.

The storm is headed east along the U.S.-Canada border, said meteorologist Danny Mercer.

“It doesn’t look like a big snow or wind producer for the rest of the U.S. It looks like the biggest impact was here,” he said.

But another storm is splitting off from that - “part of the same trough” - and heading south. It’s likely to drop snow along the Rockies, include the Boulder-Denver area, late today into Wednesday, Mercer said.

The highest winds hit Sunday evening with an 84 mph gust recorded at the mouth of the Columbia River and an 81 mph gust on the central Oregon coast, said meteorologist Scott Weishaar in Portland.

Winds early Monday hit 60 mph on the Washington coast and 55 mph in the south Puget Sound area, said meteorologist Ted Buehner in Seattle.

Winds knocked tree limbs onto power lines. Seattle City Light had 11,000 customers out of service at one time. Puget Sound Energy had 17,000 power failures, mostly in the south King County area, southeast of Seattle.

Portland General Electric responded to dozens of power failures in the metropolitan area. Pacific Power had about 10,000 customers without power throughout western Oregon.

Winds knocked a tree onto a home in Lakewood, Wash., near where a 2-year-old was sleeping, but it missed the child’s crib. Winds also were blamed for sinking two boats on Lake Washington at Kirkland, Wash., and the Fire Department helped two people who were sleeping on one of the boats, KOMO Radio reported.

Heavy snow fell in the mountains. Accumulations from the storm that started Sunday are likely to total 2 to 3 feet by this morning in the Washington Cascades, Buehner said.

Snow already was on the ground in parts of Eastern Washington, including Spokane, but downtown streets were clear by Monday afternoon.

“A wide variety of winter weather is clearly affecting the entire state,” Buehner said. “It’s the strongest storm of the year, so far.”

Wind speeds of more than 60 mph were reported in eastern Washington at Pullman on Monday morning, and power company Avista reported thousands of customers without power in its large service area. Winds ofmore than 50 mph were reported in Spokane, and a tree fell on two homes. No injuries were reported.

Winds delayed work on the Hanford nuclear reservation in southeast Washington. A large accumulation of tumbleweeds blocked some roadways, the Tri-City Herald reported. Washington Closure Hanford canceled outdoor environmental cleanup work because of the winds.

Snow accumulations in the Oregon Cascades will total 1 to 2 feet, Weishaar said.

Four construction workers at a cell-phone tower project on Steens Mountain in southeast Oregon were stranded when their snow vehicle became stuck in a drift Saturday. They waded through waistdeep snow to reach a heated shelter with electricity.

Harney County rescuers were turned back Sunday by white-out conditions. Sheriff Dave Glerup said conditions Monday were too treacherous to send up another team or deploy a National Guard helicopter. Another attempt isn’t likely until this afternoon, he said.

Information for this article was contributed by Tim Fought in Portland and Nicholas K. Geranios of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 12/18/2012