Recent Stories with tag rain

We're headed for a "very wet Monday afternoon" says KING 5's Rich Marriott, as a storm blows in with wind and rain. Up in the mountains that means snow, and if you're planning on a trip through the passes, consult with WSDOT first. Higher elevations are expected to get some six to twelve inches of snow from this storm. 

Speaking of the weather, Cliff Mass is excited about two new ways you have to track weather online. There's a radar aggregator the UW has cooked up (that's where the screenshot comes from), and the kids in atmospherics have put together WINDWATCH, which...well, the name is fairly self-explanatory. 

It's also timely, since this storm is expected to bring high winds just north of Seattle, and you can see what the models predict. Looks like the worst of it is supposed to come around 10 p.m. this evening.

Radar map image courtesy of the National Weather Service

As of Saturday, the UW's Cliff Mass was downgrading the risk of flooding even over the Olympics and North Cascades, because models were showing the rains passing through today, rather than setting up camp and pouring for several days.

That said, today's downpour is already well underway, and Seattle traffic maps are a motley of red and black. UW's Probcast gives us a 15 percent chance of more than an inch of rainfall (maximum 1.4 inches).

The massive low that's delivering this moisture is parked up in the Gulf of Alaska, and generating 30- to 40-foot waves out to sea.

That low is weakening, and tomorrow there's only a ten percent chance of rain. Again, looking out the window, that's a little hard to believe--but science says so. If you haven't voted, you won't be able to blame lousy weather for your lack of civic responsibility.

First of all, if you're feeling a little out of sorts with the weather, it's not just you. And you can tell the "It's spring in Seattle, stupid, it's always like this" crowd that that's not true either. Cliff Mass has done the numbers and "For the past ten days the maximum temperature has stayed well below normal."

That said, buckle up, because there's more wet on the way. Tonight and tomorrow should bring a good soaking, we get Thursday off, and then Friday another storm seems to be shaping up that could bring strong winds as well as rain. I'll keep an eye on Cliff's blog and report back when he updates closer to the weekend. In the meantime, keep the galoshes handy, and be prepared to sprint outside on Thursday for sunbreaks.

Parts of Western Washington have already received over an inch of rain today, and a wetter week is forecast for the first week of June. Anchorage is currently 10 degrees warmer than Seattle. Forecasters agree that if we're going to have one good day this weekend, it'll be Sunday, so be prepared. In the meantime, here's a reminder that September can really nice.

If it's going to rain all week long, at least that's an excuse to wear a great pair of boots.  Thanks to zenobia_joy for setting this splash of color smack dab in the middle of the SunBreak Flickr pool.

Yes, it is disheartening to see your iPhone display this weather forecast for the week. And with the precipitation, comes flood warnings.

"Because of the significant rainfall expected today, flood watches are issued for the Olympic Peninsula and north interior," says Lisa Van Cise of KING 5 First Alert Weather. "The rivers of most concern are the Skokomish and Nooksack.  The Skokomish is expected to reach flood stage late in the day today."

The Green River and Howard Hanson Dam seem to be spared the brunt of this soaking, though there's already seven or eight more feet of water behind the dam than last week. The Green River webcams say so far, so good.

Something to think about with all the rain is, counter-intuitively, cutting down on your water usage. The excess water hitting storm drains tends to overpower our sewage treatment plants. A few hundred thousand shorter showers would really help out.

Meanwhile, meteorologist Cliff Mass is celebrating an unusual occurrence: It was warmer in Seattle over the weekend than in Miami. Florida has pre-frozen citrus and a guppy die-off in the millions. We had highs in the mid-50s. Mass explains why Seattle has avoided the rest of the nation's deep-freeze here. Short answer: Thank Eastern Washington for sponging up any cold that spills over the Rockies, and the Cascades for keeping the freezer door shut.

Break out the galoshes.

Back on Friday, Cliff Mass was predicting a major pineapple express "event" starting today through Wednesday. His update post yesterday forecasts heavy rains on the southwest side of the Olympic mountain range. Heavy in this case means 2-5 inches on Monday and 10-20 inches on Tuesday. The North Cascades will also likely get flood-producing rain, though it looks like the Green River valley area may duck the brunt of this storm.

In Seattle, we will awake to a suddenly balmy (well, upper 50s) Monday, with the attendant winds produced by major temperature shifts. The National Weather Service has nothing but rain and showers for Seattle today through Saturday. That's a whole week of stomping in puddles!

If you want to stomp in puddles for the civic good, join the city's Adopt-A-Drain program and help keep your street's storm drains clear of leaves and debris.

The windows are open and the curtains are fluttering, the combination of cold air and wet roads has turned the sound of traffic along I-5 just down the hill into a dull roar, and the middle-aged cat has curled up on a hot water bottle to warm her toes and aging joints. At last, fall feels like it's arrived! Probcast has lows tonight down to 51, with an 80 percent chance of rain tomorrow with a low of 46 degrees tomorrow night.

The first week of fall, with highs in the 70s, was a respite for those odd Seattleites who prize sun over showers, but for all the Northwest natives, the smell of wet wool drying by the door and the pitter-patter of raindrops on the windowpane lulling you to sleep bring back beloved childhood memories the same way apple pie and Christmas day do for the saner of our countrymen (and -women).

So don't let the promise of seven bleak months of soul-crushing gray and wet weather get you down. Embrace it! Time for warm drinks, cozy socks, oft-forgotten bumbershoots, pumpkin carving, leaf raking, and, just to start everything off on the right foot, heavy beers. Which is what I will be drinking at Brouwer's Cafe tomorrow afternoon, seeing as how the first taste of fall always puts to the mood for a pint of something like Old Rasputin... But whatever. Enjoy!