Atmospheric River stretches thousands of miles, begins in subtropics east of Guam
An atmospheric river raced across the Pacific Ocean and then slammed into the Pacific Northwest Friday.
High winds thrashed trees and knocked out power to more than 300,000 customers in Western Washington.
Southeast of Mount Rainier, White Pass recorded a wind gust of 104 miles per hour.
According to atmospheric scientist Cliff Mass, “The atmospheric river of Thursday/Friday did not disappoint, with some locations securing nearly 10 inches of precipitation (see 48-h totals below).”
Due to a rain shadow, the central Puget Sound region did not receive the heavy rains that impacted other areas.
A narrow rain shadow will continue to hold up around central Puget Sound into the afternoon while moderate to heavy rain continues elsewhere. The heavier precipitation will gradually shift southward tonight. A potent Puget Sound Convergence Zone is likely late this evening. #wawx pic.twitter.com/y8SO8U0Kof
— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) November 4, 2022
The storm brought snow to the mountains and mostly mild flooding to the lowlands.
Prior to the storm’s arrival, Beyond 90 Seconds went live on Facebook along the Snohomish River in downtown Snohomish. The purpose of the live report was to document that day’s appearance of the river so that we could later see how much the water level would change by Friday and Saturday.
Beyond 90 Seconds’ cameras returned to the river on Friday and Saturday.
A chronology of our coverage can be found in the YouTube playlist below.
In his blog post The Lowland Snow Outlook, A Wind Surge through the Strait, Amazing Precipitation Totals, and Problematic Passes, Mass writes, “It is probably time for the US Drought Monitor to drop the SEVERE drought over western Washington.”
See the National Weather Service forecast for Western Washington here.