Photography

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Hillary Hipple-Read, 5, reacts to a gust of wind Wednesday while in downtown Seattle with her father, Mike Hipple, and Grayson Helke.

Wind and rain whipped through the Puget Sound area on the first day of spring, but not without pockets of sunshine. West Seattle bore the brunt of the storm in the metro area with gusts up to 47 mph at Alki Point, according to the National Weather Service.

Gusts near Bellingham and on the coast were around 50 mph. The storm dropped 15 inches of snow on Stevens Pass, 9 inches on Snoqualmie Pass and 16 inches on Mount Baker.

Mountain passes could be intermittently closed for avalanche control Thursday as they were Wednesday.

Thunder, rain and maybe even snowflakes -- a repeat of what Snohomish County saw Wednesday night -- are headed to the Puget Sound area Thursday and Friday.

An unstable air mass over the Seattle metro area may cause thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening, National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Burke said.

A convergence zone could bring extra rain to the northern Seattle metro area.

Dipping temperatures also could bring a couple of snowflakes to the highest areas of the region, including Seattle, but it likely wouldn't stick.

After more than a foot of snow dropped at Stevens Pass and Mount Baker Wednesday, another foot is expected to drop on mountain passes by Friday morning.

Winds shouldn't be as strong as they were Wednesday, though. In the Seattle area, wind should be 10 to 20 mph, Burke said.

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Pedestrians fought strong gusts of wind at the intersection of Second Avenue and Pike Street in downtown Seattle on Wednesday in Seattle.

MARK HARRISON / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Spring winds near 30 mph pushed waves into the south side of the Interstate 90 bridge Wednesday afternoon.

ALAN BERNER / THE SEATTLE TIMES

It's a blustery hair day for Ana Xavier from Brazil as she's into the first day of spring during a Pike Place Market visit Wednesday.

MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Homes get slammed by high winds along Beach Drive Southwest near Southwest Genesee Street in West Seattle on Wednesday afternoon.