Strong storm system to bring turbulent winter weather to Pacific Northwest

November 19, 2012 – PORTLAND – Residents and visitors of the Pacific Northwest hoping to have some dry weather for the days leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday will be out of luck. In fact, the Northwest will be the stormiest part of the nation through Thanksgiving. A Pacific storm train of weather disturbances will continue to barrel through the Northwest in quick succession bringing bouts of rain, snow, and wind. At this time it appears that no prolonged period of dry weather is on the horizon. The series of storm systems will likely continue well past Thanksgiving and into the following weekend. These storms will bring rain, mountain snow and damaging coastal winds. According to AccuWeather’s Western Weather Expert Ken Clark, “Between the major storms, the weather is not likely to be dry, especially from the Cascades on west. Moist, onshore winds will cause showers between these major storms at just about any time. The heaviest snow will be above pass level, but there will be periods of snow with slick travel through the passes in the periods of colder air over the next week. Above 4,500 feet, several feet of snow is likely to fall over the next week,” Clark added. As for the wind aspect of these storms, damaging winds past 60 mph can occur right along the coast. Isolated peak wind gusts up to 60 mph can occur over the interior. Early this morning, winds gusted to 98 mph at Yaquina Head, Ore. The storm train will not stop through much of this week, including a rainy, snowy, and windy Thanksgiving for the region. It should be noted that an active wet pattern like this one is not uncommon for the middle to end of November across the Pacific Northwest. –Accuweather