Heavy Rainfall, Eclipse Weather, and Possible Saturday Windstorm

Today we had an active atmospheric river over western Washington and Oregon, producing some impressive one-day totals.  Take a look at the total precipitation for the 24-h period ending 8 PM on Wednesday (see image).  Some locations (such as near the SE side of the Olympics) have reached over 4 inches, while 2-4 inches was widespread over terrain.  Only portions of eastern Washington received less than .05 inches.

The 24-h rainfall amounts from Seattle Rainwatch, based on the Camano Is. radar, shows a huge contrast in western Washington, ranging from 2-3 inches in the southern Sound to roughly half that north of Everett.

An infrared satellite picture at 1 PM his afternoon shows the plume of moisture extending into our region, and lots of unstable air behind it over the Pacific, which will be moving in tomorrow.

The partial solar eclipse

A partial eclipse of the sun will occur tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon starting at 1:36 PM and ending at 4:20 PM here in Seattle.  Will it be clear enough for you to see it?

Here is the UW WRF model's cloud forecast for 3 PM.  Best place to go for a chance for clear skies?  The eastern slopes of the Cascades.

And finally, I and others have been watching the potential storm on Saturday.  The solutions have shifted a bit, but right now it looks like we will have a decent blow on Saturday night, but not an historic windstorm.

On Saturday at 11 AM, the pressure forecast shows a strong, but elongated low off the Washington/Oregon coast.  Elongated is not good...you want a compact, concentrated storm.  But there are large pressure gradients along the northern CA and southern Oregon coasts--40-60 mph gusts are possible

 By 2 AM on Sunday the low has passed into southern BC and a large pressure gradient is over western Washington.  Expect wind and some power outages, particularly since leaves are on the trees.  Still plenty of uncertainty with this storm, so will watch it carefully.