Rain was falling over parts of the Pacific Northwest and Northern California on Tuesday afternoon and wet, windy weather was expected to spread across the region overnight and continue through Wednesday, even Friday for some locations.
The stormy conditions are the result of back-to-back atmospheric rivers, storms that are tapping into the moisture from the Pacific Ocean and transporting it to the West Coast, according to Julie Kalansky, deputy director at the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.
Key things to know:
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The first of the storms is expected to bring heavy rain from late Tuesday night into Wednesday. After a brief break, the second is forecast to move in on Thursday.
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There is a small risk of excessive rainfall that could lead to flooding in the Olympic Mountains of Western Washington and across portions of southern Oregon and far Northern California.
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Some scattered power outages are possible because of strong winds, particularly in Humboldt County and the North Bay in California.
“It’s a train of systems that are moving through our area through the week,” said Kayla Mazurkiewicz, a meteorologist with the Weather Service office in Seattle.
The California-Oregon border and areas just to the north and south of it sit at the bull’s-eye of where severe weather is most likely. There’s a small risk of thunderstorms that could bring isolated bursts of hail, strong, erratic winds, and even spin up a water spout over the ocean, forecasters warned.
Coastal and mountainous areas of southern Oregon and far Northern California could record two to six inches of rain through Friday. A flood watch was in effect through Wednesday morning for a portion of northwest California, including parts of Humboldt and Mendocino Counties.
In Washington state, plumes of moisture were expected to deliver rain Wednesday through Friday, with Seattle seeing up one to one and a half inches of rain.
In California’s San Francisco Bay Area, the bulk of the rain — around a half inch to one inch —was expected to fall on Wednesday.
The other hazard with this storm will be the winds. High wind warnings were issued for many coastal areas of Northern California and southern Oregon, as well as for interior mountains.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, “the wind will be the biggest concern,” over the rain, said Dalton Behringer, a meteorologist with the Weather Service office in Monterey.
Pacific Gas and Electric, California’s largest utility, said it was preparing for potential power outages on Tuesday and Wednesday in pockets of Northern California where the worst winds are expected, including parts of the North Bay, particularly Sonoma County.
“The incoming adverse weather could result in trees, limbs and other debris falling into power lines, damaging equipment and interrupting electric service,” said Tamar Sarkissian, a spokeswoman for PG&E.
The storms moving across the Pacific Ocean are churning up seas that are sending large swells to the West Coast at the same time that the highest tides of the year are occurring. Local Weather Service offices up and down the coast have issued a smattering of advisories and warnings for high surf and flooding.
Southern California was expected to remain dry through the storm, with the rain focused over San Luis Obispo County northward, but beach areas were predicted to get hit with big waves and potentially some flooding.
“We’re expecting the highest surf of the season so far,” said Kristan Lund, a meteorologist with the Weather Service office in Oxnard.
Amy Graff is a Times reporter covering weather, wildfires and earthquakes.
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