Following a strong bomb cyclone that killed two people, took out electricity to half a million people at its height, and brought down trees and power lines, Washington state is in shock. However, this reprieve won’t stay long because another storm is approaching.
The storm, which erupted off the coast Tuesday, brought severe winds, rain, and heavy mountain snow to Washington, battering the Pacific Northwest.
The severe weather caused confusion and road closures, left cities buried in white snow, caused extensive damage, and knocked off electricity to hundreds of thousands of people in Washington, which Puget Sound Energy described as a multi-day outage. According to PowerOutage.Us, more than 320,000 people in Washington were without power as of 10 a.m. ET on Thursday.
The storm claimed the lives of two ladies in the Seattle region.
According to South County Fire, which handles emergency services in Snohomish County, north of Seattle, a woman in her 50s was killed Tuesday at approximately 7 p.m. PT when a tree collapsed at a homeless encampment in Lynnwood. According to firefighters, a homeowner of Bellevue, a Seattle suburb, in the Bridle Trails neighborhood called to report that his wife had been killed when a tree crashed into his home.
Although Washington is currently recuperating from the intense storm, another weather system is approaching. The National Weather Services stated Thursday that a developing storm system is expected to bring significant mountain snow into the northern Rockies into the weekend, along with another wave of strong winds on Friday.
On Friday, the system is expected to sweep off the coasts of Oregon and Washington. It will bring strong gusts, mostly near the coast, and may cause rough waves and more localized power outages.
Two million people are under flood watches as a result of a powerful atmospheric river event that is also affecting southwestern Oregon and Northern California. Up to 16 inches of rain might fall in certain areas of the Golden State, while up to five feet of snow could fall in the mountains.
The majority of water vapor outside of the tropics is transported by atmospheric rivers, which are defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as long, narrow areas of the atmosphere.
Over the next four days, it is predicted to stay mostly stationary and bring six to twelve inches of rain to already-saturated areas. By the time the storm passes by the weekend, this will result in storm totals of 12 to 16 inches.
According to the weather office, the atmospheric river is expected to reach its maximum intensity on Thursday, with moderate rainstorms continuing for most of Friday and snow levels finally decreasing slightly on Saturday.
Peak wind speeds of 98 mph have already been recorded in Mattole Road, California, and 89 mph in Acorn Woman Peak, California. Austin Creek has already recorded 8.72 inches of peak rainfall, while Point Area has recorded 5.21 inches.
Forecasters warn that there is a significant danger of extreme rainfall today along the Northern California coastline, along with the possibility of flooding, rock slides, and debris flows.
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