Powerful "Drunken" Storm to Hit the Northwest, Followed by Another Big Blow

Today I will coin a new meteorological term:  drunken storm.

Drunken Storm:  a storm that circles around and has minimal forward motion, in contrast to normal storms that move rapidly to the east or northeast.

Tomorrow, an usually powerful storm for our region will careen around in our offshore water for an extended period before making landfall.  A very strong storm and unusual behavior.

Her is an infrared satellite image of the inebriated storm at 9:45 PM Wednesday:  it looks kind of funny, don't you think?  Not very symmetric or well formed.

 So let's view the strange behavior, using the latest UW WRF model forecasts.

At 1 AM Thursday morning, the powerful storm (969 mb!) is due west of WA State.  Very large pressure gradients over the ocean...which means big winds.

 By 1 PM Thursday, the low had moved slowly towards Vancouver Island.

1 AM Friday--it is still out there!  Now just SE of Vancouver Is.  Staggering.

 1 PM Friday, the low had weakened a bit and had drifted towards the SW Washington coast.

 FINALLY, by 1 AM Saturday the storm makes landfall and ends up over eastern Washington.

 But mamma mia, another major storm....and not a drunken one...is heading right towards us on Saturday afternoon around 1 PM.

 That storm moves north of Puget Sound on Sunday AM, resulting in strong pressure gradient over western WA and undoubtedly powerful winds if this forecast is accurate.

 

And did I mention the big waves and flooding along the Washington coast?  I should have.

Take a look at the predicted significant wave heights (the average of the 1/3 highest waves) on Thursday at 7 AM.  Wow...some are 12 meters high! (around 40 ft)

 By 4 PM they reach the coast, although ONLY about 10 meters high.

 These waves, plus enhanced water levels due to low pressure over the region, should produce some coastal flooding.

And there will be plenty of precipitation during the next 72 hours, with most substantial torrents over Oregon and northern CA (see 72h predicted total below), where 5-10 inches may fall in the mountains. Lots of moisture will be spun off from the drunken storm.

And there is a lot more I don't have time to talk about, such as lots of sun in the mountains, cooler temperatures, and even the potential for lowland snow.   The atmosphere is not done with us yet.