Showers to Dampen West Coast at Midweek

By Brian Lada, Meteorologist

March 11,2015; 9:54PM,EDT

 

 

A weak disturbance moving into the West will spread showers over a large part of the region during the middle of the week.
This will be far from a steady rain, but people from Seattle to San Francisco may still want to take an umbrella with them when heading out the door on Wednesday or Wednesday night.
Some snow is also forecast to fall over the northern Sierras from this disturbance, but should not impact travel much as snow should remain above pass levels.

Showers will move into the West during the day on Wednesday before tracking toward the Rocky Mountains on Wednesday night.
However, a shower or two may linger around into Thursday morning, especially along the coast of the Pacific Northwest.
Not all of the West will have showers from this disturbance as the unsettled weather is forecast to stay north of the Southern California cities of Los Angeles and San Diego.
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Unfortunately for those in the West, this quick-moving disturbance will not bring much in terms of rainfall amounts.
As a result, it will have virtually no effect on the severe drought gripping the region.
"Now that a great portion of the rainfall season is in the rear view mirror the writing is on the wall," said AccuWeather.com Western Weather Expert Ken Clark.
"Though the first half of December 2014 was wet to very wet, since then rain and snow has been below to far below normal. There was an almost two-month stretch of little or no rain and snow."
Drought conditions can be expected to continue, and possibly even worsen, over the next week as dry weather will dominate the region.
The next chance for rain will come over the weekend, but is expected to mainly fall over the Northwest and miss out on the areas being most affected by the drought.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, nearly 60 percent of the West is experiencing at least moderate drought conditions.
California and Nevada are experiencing the worst of the drought conditions with nearly 68 percent of California and 48 percent of Nevada being classified as being in an extreme drought.
Several big rainstorms will be needed before the severity of the drought decreases and water reservoirs across the region are filled to their normal capacity.