Cliff Mass Weather Blog: Why don't we get rain and wind at the same time?

(Source: Cliff Mass Weatherblog)

An interesting aspect of Northwest storms is that generally we don't get heavy rain and strong winds at the same time.  This week's early spring storm was a good example:  first came the rain and THEN came the wind.  Why don't they occur at the same time?  It has to do with the nature of the structure of Pacific storms.
Let's start with a plot of wind, precipitation, and other weather parameters over a 72-hr period this week at the University of Washington.  The top panel shows the winds and the fifth panel presents precipitation.  Time is in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT or UTC).  Lots of rain from 0000 to 1500 UTC on the 20th, but the big winds waited until 1800 UTC on the 20th.  Classic.  Remember the Chanukah Eve Storm in 2006?  Pouring rain during the day, but the big winds came during the evening and early morning hours after nearly all the rain was over.  I could give you a hundred examples of this behavior.

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Cliff Mass Weather Blog: Why don't we get rain and wind at the same time?