Three Atmospheric Rivers During the Next Week

Three atmospheric rivers will be impinging on the Pacific Northwest, and substantial precipitation will be falling.

To illustrate, below is a plot of integrated water vapor transport (the intensity of the horizontal movement of water vapor by winds) on Friday at 5 PM.  The arrows show the direction and intensity of the water vapor transport.

Lots of water vapor pushing into western WA and BC.    Water vapor that will turn to precipitation as it is forced to rise by our local mountains.

When you get into the blue colors,  you know the atmospheric river is a strong one!

Late Monday, another (but weaker) atmosphere will make landfall

And then a monster atmospheric river will make landfall on Wednesday, with heavier precipitation in Oregon and northern California.

You want to see how much precipitation will fall?  

You bet..and be prepared to be impressed.

After the first atmospheric river (Saturday at 5 PM shown below), the Washington and BC mountains (and their windward slopes) will have received two inches or more of liquid water.

This is just the start.   

After the third atmospheric river moves through (Thursday at 4 PM shown), the accumulated precipitation totals will be stunning, with some locations getting over 10 inches of accumulated liquid water.

There will be a massive fill of regional reservoirs, and I suspect the persistent talk of drought will fade.   Of course, no more regional wildfires.

But as in late-night TV commercials, there is MORE!   The latest long-range European Center forecast for November through January predicts much more precipitation than normal over the region.