00:00An atmospheric river will target the northwest over the next couple of days, bringing with it heavy rain.
00:07What's an atmospheric river? It's a river of moisture in the atmosphere that can span thousands of miles.
00:13What makes them dangerous in the northwest and actually the west coast, including California, is that you have a lot of mountainous terrain, right?
00:22And as that Pacific moisture is forced to rise along the west slopes of the mountains, that intensifies the precipitation even more.
00:32Take a look at the satellite picture. This is the current setup for heavy rain in the northwest.
00:38We have two storms coming, one as our Monday unfolds, and then a second one Tuesday night in the Wednesday.
00:45By the time we add up the rain, we're looking at double-digit rainfall across western parts of Washington.
00:52Also, atmospheric rivers doesn't have a lot of cold air, so snow levels are going to be exceptionally high in the Cascades,
01:00and that will lead, because of the warmer air and the rain, to very unstable snow conditions,
01:07and that could lead to an avalanche danger through this week.
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