Power outages continue to plague several Western states after a series of atmospheric-river-fueled storms struck the region this week. Hurricane-strength winds of over 100 mph pounded the Pacific Northwest, leaving over 300,000 people without power at one point. The impacts from this week's extreme weather stretched from Northern California to as far north as British Columbia, Canada.
Even seasoned meteorologists have been stunned by the destructive power of the storms that struck this week. "These systems have been very active, very dynamic," Brian Proctor, a meteorologist at Environment Canada, told The New York Times.
Alerts for strong winds stretched from nearly coast to coast. Over 79 million people across portions of 32 states were under a wind advisory Thursday. Some of the wind gusts reported Wednesday were jaw-dropping, including a gust of 144 mph in Mount Coffin, Wyoming, 142 mph in Coldwater Ridge, Washington, and 138 mph in Mount Hood, Oregon.
Those powerful winds knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people in the Pacific Northwest. Over half a million lost power in the region Wednesday. Just over 275,000 remained without power across portions of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana on Thursday morning.
Strong winds arrived in the wake of a storm that slammed the West Coast with record rainfall earlier this week. Torrential rains led to the failure or breach of levees in Seattle's King County. A flood watch remains in effect for the Seattle area until 4 p.m. Friday.
"At 17.5 feet, the Skokomish River will cause moderate flooding, with deep and quick flood waters inundating some residential areas, many roads, and much of the farmland in the Skokomish Valley," cautioned a flood warning that remained in effect for an area just south of Seattle on Thursday.
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Seattle has seen 76% more than average rainfall for the entire month of December in just the first 17 days of this month. With 9.59 inches of rain falling in Olympia, Washington, during the same period, the city has now received more than double its normal rainfall for the entire month. Tacoma, Washington, has also already doubled its normal rainfall for the month with 6.24 inches falling through Wednesday.
"Atmospheric rivers are long, concentrated regions in the atmosphere that transport moist air from the tropics to higher latitudes," explains the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "The moist air, combined with high wind speeds, produce heavy rain and snow upon landfall, especially over mountainous terrain."
Scientists say our warming world is amplifying atmospheric rivers. A study found that atmospheric-river-related flood damages in the West could more than double by the 2090s with an "intermediate emissions" scenario.
"Atmospheric rivers generate most of the economic losses associated with flooding in the western United States and are projected to increase in intensity with climate change," the authors of a study conducted by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography said. "This is of concern as flood damages have been shown to increase exponentially with AR intensity."
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