West Coast Weather Woes Were Overshadowed By Eastern Bomb Cyclone

An icy street in Seattle last week. The ice has since
melted and now Seattle is under a flood watch. 
This is part of a weather pattern change that will
bring warmer, wetter weather to most of the
nation, including Vermont.

 While the eastern two thirds of the United States was swallowed by that bomb cyclone are Arctic blast through the Christmas holiday, the West Coast has been enduring its own weather woes.  

And will continue to do so. Although the news isn't 100 percent bad out there. 

By the way, what happens on the West Coast doesn't stay on the West Coast. We'll see some effects up here in the Northeast/Vermont. More on that in a bit. 

The Pacific Northwest shared in the cold weather as Christmas approached. The problem was, so did a warm front. Warm air rose up and over the frigid conditions around Seattle, so they had a rare ice storm. 

Seattle is a hilly town and social media erupted with videos of vehicles sliding down steep slopes and hitting other obstacles like bumper cars.  People resorted to sliding down hills on their butts because they couldn't walk on the slick ice. Around 15,000 people in the region lost power. 

The warm front eventually moved through and it warmed up nicely, at least west of the Cascades. But that introduced new trouble. It rained, pretty heavily, thanks to an atmospheric river off the Pacific. This came as snow and ice melted, so there's a flood threat now. 

On top of that, coastal King Tides are flooding some spots, and a high wind warning is up today for the Seattle area. The soggy ground will make it easier for winds to topple trees. And there's a risk of landslides.

So it's a mess. 

Further down the coast, Oregon and California are getting rain again, with of course snow in the higher elevations. 

For the mountains, this is more good news. The Sierra Nevada mountains got off to a good start with snowfall earlier this month. This raised hopes that accumulations might be good this winter, which would replenish reservoirs when the snow melts in the spring. 

There were also fears things would go like last year, with an initial burst of precipitation then nothing.  There was a lull in rain and snow in California for the past week or two, but that's over now. 

Over ten inches of rain or water equivalent is forecast in the Sierra Nevada in just the next seven days. This week of storms doesn't solve all of California's drought problems, but it will probably put another small dent in it. 

However, the rain might come down heavy enough in California's lower elevations to create flooding.  Especially in burn scar areas where wildfires eliminated vegetation earlier this year and last year. 

PATTERN CHANGE

The storminess in California is part of a major weather pattern change that is flushing the Arctic air out of the United States.

Pretty much everybody gets to share in the warmer air as the week goes on, including us Vermonters.  High temperatures that have been in the teens and 20s in recent days will rise into the 40s starting Thursday and probably continuing through the New Year's weekend. 

New Year's Eve will feel very different from Christmas Eve. Instead of snow, treacherous roads and rapidly falling temperatures, New Year's Eve looks like it will above freezing temperatures and a risk of rain.

Yes, I said rain. That same new weather pattern that is flooding the nation with relative winter warmth is also bringing storminess. Those storms slamming into the West Coast have to go somewhere. The first storm, due New Year's weekend in the Northeast, doesn't look like it will be any kind of blockbuster like the last one. 

It seems like it will bring inclement, but not extreme conditions.

However, there will be more storms waiting in the wings after that. Going into mid-January, it seems we might have frequent chances of rain, snow, or mixed storms. Stay tuned!