Nasty Flood In Pacific Northwest. And Perhaps Some Flooding In Vermont Coming Up?

National Weather Service expected rainfall map for
the next seven days shows several inches additional rain
in the flooded Pacific Northwest, with more than an
inch here in Vermont. An expected warm storm
Sunday would melt mountain snow, raising the
risk of some flooding in Vermont by then. 

 An atmospheric river - a ribbon of deep Pacific moisture - slammed into the Pacific Northwest over the past couple of days, causing a lot of flooding that led to at least one death, and a lot of damage. 

The death was of a man swept away in a creek near Portland, Oregon. In Washington State, more than eight inches of rain soaked some areas.  The Stillaguamish River north of Seattle got to a record high crest, CNN reported.

The Skagit and Snoqualmie rivers were at major flood stage.

The atmospheric river was accompanied by record warmth, meaning rain fell at high elevations above 9,000 feet. 

That added melting snow to the mix. At low elevations, Portland, Oregon reached 65 degrees, tying the record high for the entire month of December.

Seattle had a record high of 59 degrees and also a record for the wettest December 5 on record with 2.01 inches.

The rain is temporarily tapering off in the Pacific Northwest today, but another atmospheric river with more heavy rain and possible flooding is due over the weekend.

VERMONT STORM/FLOOD?

The Green Mountain State Sunday night and Monday could see a smaller, more minor but still concerning version of what happened in the Pacific Northwest.

It's drier and cold in Vermont this week as daytime highs stay in the 20s today through Thursday. There's' very little snow on the ground in the valleys, but he mountains have already piled up one to three feet of snow, well ahead of where we should be this time of year.

Near the summit of Mount Mansfield, 39 inches of snow was on the ground compared to a normal of about a foot and a half this time of year.

I mention this because a warm, wet storm seems likely Sunday and Monday, which could bring flooding and some strong winds. 

Some of the energy from the Pacific Northwest storminess will dive down into the southern Plains and Gulf Coast states. That will spin up a storm that will scoop up quite a bit of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and bring it northward.

Since this storm is still likely to go by to our west, we'll get a shot of quite warm air on Sunday. At this point highs are forecast to reach the 50s by then.  A burst of pretty heavy rain seems like it wants to come through later Sunday and Sunday night. 

The combination of rain and mountain snow melt could easily be enough to put some Vermont rivers over flood stage. So far, this doesn't look nearly as bad as the flooding we had back in July. But still, we'll want to pay attention to this as water might be high enough to close some roads and create problems in low lying areas.

As always, the forecast will be fine-tuned between now and Sunday, so just keep the idea in your head that there might be some trouble with high water by the time Sunday night and Monday roll around. 

The storm might also produce areas of strong winds, so we'll keep an eye on that, too.