So often the US West Coast gets lots of precipitation from the warm Pacific Ocean evaporations, mainly directed from the Hawaiian Islands & further southern regions. Nearly as often, precipitation is sprayed like a water hose, maybe to the northwestern US & Canada or lesser so to California & Baja California areas. Less usual is when precipitation simultaneously hits California & the Northwest. Such seems to be case right now. Hopefully, California can get some snow & rain to begin filling some of its reservoirs. Don’t know if there will be much help for the lakes backed up behind Hoover & Glenn Canyon Dams. With more Pacific storms coming in, California weather announcers are getting excited about possible drought relief. But, it has been repeated that a long series of precipitations are needed to quell the extreme droughts. Here, near Everett, WA, after a night of steady rain, the rain is slackening. Even the mountains seem to have clearing, tho the cloud cover is stll 100%. After several days of high water, I’ll go out later & see how much flooding is occurring, which was predicted. PS…..The rain is returning & the mountains are buried in clouds again. I’ll go out in the weather & see what the rivers are like. No wind right now, but gusts are occurring in Seattle & predicted more generally. PS I…….Out to see the rivers. They are up, but not much more than yesterday & not way out of the banks. Some ponding in the fields, but again not bad. Three things blunting any flooding problems. 1) The temperature is about 8DegF lower than the temperatures encountered during major flooding. 2) The rains seem to be sporadic. 3) There isn’t major snow amounts in the mountains, that when warm rain falls, melts almost all mountain snow. /////// 12-28-22: PS II……Appears quite a bit of rain & snow is falling in watersheds leading into the Colorado River. Let’s hope MORE precipitation continues & the continuing western drought can be reduced & the lakes behind Hoover & Glenn Canyon dams can be filled, again. Lots of rain & run-off are falling & running into California reservoirs, raising lakes many feet, already. Numerous rain systems are targeting California & the West Coast. Some appear to be larger than some of the systems that have swept onto the West Coast lands, already. The strong systems will not only wet the coasts, but will proceed far inland.
We in western Washington haven’t had rain for quite some time. Supposed to be a bit of rain coming, but predictions are it will only be about half an inch. The possible rain isn’t coming from the Pacific Ocean, which is our norm, but from the southeast (Colorado has had some rain?). We’ll need more rain than that, to keep the summer forest fires controllable. Looks like the southern Salish Sea(Puget Sount) will have a better chance of the rain & further north around Everett, WA may get less rain. So far, we’ve only had a sprinkle. Looks like the forests north of Mt.Rainier got more sporadic rain. Anyhow, the Canadian forest fires may just be a prelude to the forest fires starting up in the US. PS…..Up to 2 sprinkles, now.
Seattle got a trace more than you in May & tied for the warmest all time May. This year Seattle has 6 inches less rain than normal. Probably can’t narrow the rain deficit during the coming summer. El Niño is replacing La Niña, whatever that means for our Northwest. We’ll see. What we may see is large forest fires. This morning we got 2 tiny sprinkles. Right now in the afternoon, there is very light rain & maybe it’ll continue & increase for a while. Dry eastern Washington is getting more rain than we are. PS….Today, the clouds are still heavy, but only light sporadic rains come down. Wets the ground well, but no(?) half an inch of rain over the last 24 hours.
