Heavy rain, snow to renew travel woes in Northwest through next week

By Brett Rathbun, AccuWeather.com Meteorologist

December 18,2015; 9:18PM,EST

 

 

Storms will affect the Northwest this weekend and continue to roll in from the Pacific through next week.

Stormy pattern continues for Northwest

Storms hit the Northwest almost daily for the first two weeks of December.
While the storms into next week will move across the region every two or three days, they will still pack quite a punch in terms of impact.
Wet commutes to and from work will be in store across Interstate 5 from the Canadian border to northern California.
"A storm in the Gulf of Alaska will continue the trend of pulling moisture into the northwestern United States," AccuWeather Meteorologist Evan Duffey said.

Drenching rain focused on coastal Washington and Oregon Thursday and Thursday night. These areas received between 1-3 inches of rain during the storm. Astoria, Oregon, received over 3 inches of rain.
Travelers should be aware of standing water on roadways and remember to turn around and find an alternate route when faced with a flooded street.
The heavy rain will focus along the northern California coast into Friday night.
Lesser rain showers will slowly track southward into central California, including San Francisco and Sacramento into the first part of the weekend.
In addition to heavy rain, travelers will have to contend with snow, mainly in the higher elevations.
Portions of the Cascades could see between 6 and 12 inches of snow into Friday night. The heaviest snow will focus along the northern Sierra Nevada and the Bitterroots.

The next storm system will dive into the Northwest during the latter part of the weekend.
Another 1 to 2 inches of rain can fall in Seattle and Portland from the weekend storm.

Flooding and mudslides will be ongoing threats through the end of the month. Fluctuating snow levels will also increase the chance of avalanches in the Cascades.
Snow levels are forecast to be significantly lower during the storms from this weekend into next week. Several feet of snow will fall on the mountains in the region with locally heavy snow events likely east of the Cascades.
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Since the beginning of October, rain has been a welcome sight for much of the Northwest in terms of drought relief.
"Seattle and Portland have seen about 170 percent of their normal precipitation since Oct. 1," Duffey said.
Dec. 14 through Dec. 16 were the only days so far this this month Portland failed to receive at least 0.25 of an inch of rain.
With half of the month left to go, some cities could challenge records for the wettest December on record.
"The wettest December on record since 1940 at the Portland International Airport is 13.35 inches set in 1996," AccuWeather Meteorologist Michael Doll said. "The approximate 12.25 inches so far this month [through Dec. 17] already puts it in second place and is likely to become the wettest on record by either this weekend or early next week."
The second wettest December on record in Portland was 11.12 inches set in 1968.
"The drought situation has greatly improved by the stormy pattern," Duffey said. "Almost the entire state of Washington was in either a severe or extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor in early September. Currently, the amount of the state in a severe drought is down to 34.05 percent with no portions of the state in an extreme or exceptional drought."
AccuWeather Meteorologists Alex Sosnowski, Dave Samuhel and Renee Duff contributed content to this story.