A large section of western North America will be subjected to storms throughthe weekend. One well developed area of low pressure will bring a steady, heavyrain to western Washington and western British Columbia tonight and earlySaturday. There will also be high winds (gusts over 50 mph) from VancouverIsland northward along the British Columbia coast.The first storm will taper off somewhat by Saturday afternoon, but another willbe close on its heels. The second storm will hit just about the same areaSaturday night and Sunday morning with more heavy rain and high winds.
To have very stormy weather in the Northwest and British Columbia is nothingunusual for this time of year. This whole portion of western North America isoften subjected to frequent periods of bad weather from October through April.
When the Pacific storm track becomes exceedingly active, there can bemeasurable rain in places like Seattle and Portland day after day.
In the tall mountains, all this moisture becomes snow from late October on. Ina very active winter, snowfall in the coastal range of British Columbia canexceed 1,000 inches, which is more than 80 feet!In the United States, the greatest snowfall for one season occurred at MountBaker, Washington. The 1998-1999 total snowfall on the mountain was 1,140inches.
Story by AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist John Kocet.
