The Hawaiian Islands are experiencing one of the wettest Marches on record, and some of that moisture is reaching the Pacific Northwest. Day after day for an extended period.
Just to wet your appetite, here are the precipitation totals for the last 72 h. Huge totals, exceeding 20 inches, over the southern portions of the Island of Hawaii. On location got to 31 inches. Substantial flooding and other damage have occurred.
This has been a Kona storm event with strong, moist southwesterly flow reaching the islands, instead of the normal northeast (from the NE) trades. This is associated with a deep, high anomalous low to the northwest of Hawaii, known as a Kona Low. The upper level map below from Saturday illustrates this feature (the purple colors indicate the highs/pressures are much lower than normal.
This type of pattern directs tropical moisture to the northwest, as illustrated by the water vapor pattern tomorrow morning (red indicates large amounts of water vapor in the column of air).
This pattern is going away.
Want to be impressed? Below is the total precipitation over the next ten days. You won't have to go to Hawaii.....Hawaiian moisture and showers will be coming to us.
So Startup WA, in the Cascade foothills, will be getting about an inch a day for ten days? Lovely. I hope it doesn't flood again. I'm still recovering from the last time.
ReplyDeleteAnd why are California and Arizona so hot, with only modest day length and sun altitude? Even coastal CA is predicted to get into the 90's- even the high 90's in some spots.
ReplyDelete20 inches of Kona storm rain on Mt Baker would translate to about 200 inches or 16 ft of fresh snow. Let's see https://www.mtbaker.us/snow-report/
ReplyDelete"Just to wet your appetite." Wade a minute....
ReplyDeleteBy the end of the week, KBLI will break its record for consecutive March days with measurable precipitation (03/04 - 03/20). This will also easily be a top-5 wettest March for the location.
ReplyDeleteI thought i was whiffed Kona coffee a fyoo times during the deluge
ReplyDeleteSeems we might get away with calling this one a “pineapple express.”
ReplyDeleteOne of the meteorologists on KING made a passing remark about these systems typically being referred to as "pineapple expresses" in the past. I'm sure "atmospheric river" won out because it has a higher ability to generate interest and attention.
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