British Columbia/Washington Floods Worst In Decades .

The worst mudslides and floods in decades have hit
British Columbia, Canada. The rough weather is also
causing havoc in Washington State

I'd say British Columbia, Canada has had the worst weather year in history.

That's not an official statement but I'm sure many people who live there agree with me. 

You might remember back in June that Canadian province had by far its worst and most deadly heat wave on record.  

Nearly 600 Canadians died in the heat.  In that heat wave, the town of Lytton, British Columbia hit 121 degrees, the hottest temperature on record in Canada.

The next day, Lytton burned down in one of many wildfires that swept British Columbia. 

Now, British Columbia is enduring some of its worst flooding in decades. Entire towns have been evacuated and perhaps hundreds of people are stranded on highways, trapped by mudslides in front of and behind them. 

Parts of British Columbia have seen ten inches of rain in two days. 

CTV News reports as may as 100 vehicles were stranded along Highway 7 near Agassiz due to mudslides. Crews in helicopters Monday afternoon were rescuing 275 people, including 50 children, that had been trapped there since Sunday.  

More than 7,000 people were evacuated from the city of Merritt - pretty much the entire city - due to flooding.

Dealing with the flooding and mudslides was made worse by high winds that were felling trees and power lines, and causing hazardous waves in the floodwaters. 

The flooding was the worst in British Columbia since 1983.

The only good news I can say about the British Columbia flooding is that the summer wildfires have definitely been put out. 

Videos of British Columbia flooding and mudslides are here   and here 

ACROSS THE BORDER

Much like that June heat wave, Washington, over the border in the United States, also is dealing with nasty flooding.

There was extensive flooding in Bellingham, and pretty much all of downtown Sumas, Washington was under water.  Reporters at local television stations said they lost track of how many roads were closed by flooding. 

It's only the middle of the month, but Seattle has already had its third wettest November on record. 

It didn't help that the storm brought strong winds on Monday, gusting to around 60 mph in the Seattle-Tacoma area and 90 mph in the higher elevations. 

Videos of the Washington flooding are here, and here and here. 

The flooding in British Columbia and Washington was caused by an atmospheric river, a narrow band of deep moisture from the tropics that extends hundreds of miles, like a river in the sky.

Atmospheric rivers are pretty common along the northwestern U.S and western Canadian coasts, but most of them cause long periods of relatively light rain that does not cause much flooding. This one created intense rain rates, which led to all the flooding. 

This atmospheric river is now starting to subside, so rain is tapering off in the flood zone. 

VERMONT EFFECTS

What goes on along the West Coast doesn't stay on the West Coast. Energy from atmospheric rivers often translates to storms that cross the nation and affect us here in Vermont.

This will be no exception. The first of these will come through Thursday, but at least it won't be as nasty as the storm we had Saturday. No tornadoes in southern New England this time, for instance. 

Still, we'll have gusty winds and a period of showers Thursday, followed by snow showers that will accumulate a bit in the mountains and just spread wet snowflakes through the valleys. 

It seems like atmospheric river energy will in part spin up some sort of storm in the Northeast early next week.  It's hard to say at this point how big the storm will be and how it will affect Vermont. But some of the computer models are hinting at something that could produce a lot of rain or snow or both, along with strong winds somewhere in or near New England 

We'll just have to wait and see if that amounts to anything.