Our atmospheric river event is over, but the impacts – from floods and avalanches to landslides – have not.
Take a look at the storm totals just released by the National Weather Service (ending at 7am).
Bishop Station in Olympic National Park hit 14.41 inches and nearby Quinault was affected 9.16 inches. SeaTac (not shown below) gets 3.79 inches.
Below is a storm master map for the area.
The heaviest precipitation (almost entirely rain) falls from the Olympics and the south central Cascades into NW Oregon. But one very beneficial aspect of this storm is the moderate rainfall over far east Washington and Idaho. The dryland wheat farmers are probably very happy. The water around the state is currently in good condition.
To get a good sense of the super-precipitation gradient around here during such events, check out the storm’s total precipitation obtained from the Camano Island National Weather Service’s radar (below). In fact, radar can be used as a rain gauge, with caution. Don’t attach too much importance to the precipitation values in the terrain … a lot of problems cause congestion.
OH.
The rain streaks are really clear, concentrated in the center of Whidbey Island. Less than half an inch. But there has been a BIG rainfall gradient down to Puget Sound, with some isolated locations in the lowlands reaching almost 5 inches.
Daily rainfall records were broken throughout the region, on both sides of the Cascades. There are just too many to list.
And with all that rainfall, many local rivers are at very high levels. Pretty much every river west of Washington, within the Cascades, and even on the eastern slopes of the Cascades are having daily records (records for March 1) – as shown by the black dots below.
So does Northwest Oregon (see below)
And several rivers west of Washington are at flood levels (orange, red, and purple dots in the NWS chart below). Want to see something impressive? Come to Snoqualmie Falls today.
Today it looks almost tropical around the area, with peaks in the mid-50s in western Washington and mid-to-over 60s in eastern Washington. Interesting.
Finally, today is a prime day for meteorologists. A new geostationary weather satellite will be launched at 1:38 p.m. PDT. This satellite, GOES-T, will replace the West Coast observation satellite, which is experiencing some technical problems. You can watch the premiere this.
