Pacific storms to douse Seattle to San Francisco through midweek

By Renee Duff, AccuWeather.com Meteorologist

January 12,2016; 11:00AM,EST

 

 

Following a wet first week of January for the southwestern United States, storms will persist across the Pacific coast this week. However, the heaviest rain and mountain snow will take aim farther north.
"A shift in the storm track will bring a pair of systems into [the Pacific Northwest] through Wednesday," AccuWeather Meteorologist Michael Doll said.

This northward shift in the storm track will direct the heaviest rain away from Southern California, which was hit hard last week by flooding, high winds, rough surf and mudslides.
"Storms and the bulk of the rain and mountain snow will target areas from northern California to Washington and British Columbia [this week]," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said.

Following the system on Monday, a more potent storm will push inland into Wednesday.
The heaviest rain will likely stretch from northern California to southern British Columbia Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.
Rain could come down heavy enough to cause localized flash flooding across the region.
Then, rain will shift southward into central California on Wednesday, with mountain snow ramping up across the Sierra, where up to a foot of snow is likely.
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By the time rain reaches Southern California on Wednesday night, precipitation will be much lighter and more scattered.
This rain and mountain snow will fall across areas of the Pacific Northwest that have experienced an early January dry spell.
At the conclusion of the first week of January, Seattle only received 5 percent of their normal monthly precipitation. Portland, Oregon, only received 11 percent.
This dry spell follows an extremely wet end to 2015.
"Nearly a foot of rain fell in Seattle with more than 15 inches falling in Portland, Oregon, during December 2015," according to Sosnowski.
Locations across the Pacific Northwest could make up for their early January precipitation deficits as the stormy pattern looks to continue into the weekend.