After what was a record dry and quiet spell, it seems the Pacific Northwest is catching up with the typical wet and stormy weather their so often use to during fall. In the past week, a sharp and large-scale pattern shift has meant to long awaited return of wet and stormy weather to Washington and Oregon extending south into California and east into the Rockies. Boy, what a wild pattern is now in place with a powerful Pacific jet stream loaded with energy that is hurling one low onshore after another bringing gale to hurricane-force winds, flooding rains and blizzards in the Olympic and Cascade Mountains.
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According to AccuWeather, a wind gust of 114 mph was recorded earlier today at Naselle Ridge, WA, 101 mph at Megler, WA, 98 mph at Yaquina Head, OR, and 74 mph at Astoria, OR. The powerful winds will continue over the next 48 hours, higher gusts may be recorded along the immediate coast and or over mountain ridges.

The storms coming ashore are also loaded with moisture and record rains have brought plenty of flooding to areas. An impressive 6.23 inches of rain fell at Nehalem, OR in the past 24 hours while Sea-Tac Airport broke a new a daily record with 1.49 inches of rain falling between midnight and 11.30am today.

Heavy rains have also spread south bringing a decent soaking to the Redwood forests and surrounding coastal ranges of Northern California where a 5 day total of 10 inches is expected. The San Francisco Bay Area has seen a decent soaking while showers head all the way down to the LA Basin and San Diego.

Back up in the Pacific Northwest and a further several inches is expected over the next 72 hours along the I-5 coastal plain while snow totals will mount up by feet and not inches.

According to the NWS, as much as 36-48 inches of snow is expected by tonight at Mount Rainier while a total of 100-118 inches is expected by the end of Wednesday!
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