Atmospheric river sets up flood concerns in the Pacific Northwest

Torrential rain is expected in parts of Washington and Oregon this week, as AccuWeather's Geoff Cornish explains.

Transcript

00:00We have flood watches up and down much of the west coast here, at least in Washington and Oregon,

00:04from the spine of the Cascades westward, and also up into western parts of Montana,

00:09into parts of northern Idaho.

00:11Flood watches, there are some ongoing flood warnings into areas near the west side of the Puget Sound region,

00:17also southeast of Portland, down into areas like the city of the Dalles,

00:20and also all the west-facing slopes of the coastal range up to the coast in Oregon.

00:25Big picture, let's zoom out a little bit.

00:26Here we go up into Haines, Alaska. They had a tremendously snowy, cold weekend there.

00:31They're at sea level. Snow, a big deal. Many inches of snow for some.

00:35And this area here, from the panhandle of Alaska into the Pacific Northwest,

00:40and in between into Vancouver, British Columbia, this atmospheric river has been kind of flexing southward now.

00:45Now it is firmly aimed into Vancouver Island, the city of Vancouver, and also Washington and Oregon.

00:50So we're locked into it. More rain is going to be coming.

00:53Flood watches for very good reason there, with multiple inches of rain coming our way.

00:57So this is not going to end any time too soon.

00:59In fact, we're looking at widespread rain.

01:02Some of us will see 4 to 8 inches in the city of Portland, 2 to 4 inches up in Seattle.

01:07And then some of the west-facing slopes of the mountains through Wednesday

01:10will pick up a pretty impressive 8-plus-inch rainfall.

01:15Snow levels are way up above 6,000 feet.

01:16For most of the event, they'll briefly touch 4,000 feet and then bounce back right up into higher elevations.

01:23So I-90, it's a rain event for Snoqualmie Pass.

01:26A little snow will fall at times into areas like Stevens and White Passes.

01:30But even there, it's a lot more rain than it will be snow.

01:33There's a mini break coming from south to north for Wednesday.

01:36We'll see you next time.