More Rain, Snow to Clobber West Coast

Rounds of rain will drench San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and other locations along the northern Pacific coast through the weekend. (Photos.com image)

By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist

Mar 28, 2012; 3:20 PM ET

A whole train of storms lined up over the Pacific Ocean will continue to blast areas from northern California to Oregon and Washington with drenching rain and heavy mountain snow into next week.
Rounds of rain will soak coastal areas and interior valley locations from generally north of Point Conception in California through Vancouver Island and the southern British Columbia mainland.
Most of the storms in general will not be a problem and will certainly continue to work to negate long-term precipitation deficits and increase water supplies for the future.
However, one or two of the storms at the local level can lead to flash flooding and mudslides in lowland areas and road closures at some of the passes due to heavy snow. The storms can also bring disruptions air travel due to ground delays at airports.
One such storm will plow ashore Thursday into Thursday night from Washington to northern California.

A second potent storm is set to roll in Friday into Saturday with more of a focus from Oregon to central California. During Saturday, the storm could pack some wind over central and northern California to southern Oregon.

According to Western Weather Expert Ken Clark during the pattern, "Snow levels will generally hover at or below 3,500 feet from the northern Sierra Nevada through the Cascades and would be somewhat higher farther inland over the West."
The series of storms will bring frequent episodes of slow travel mostly from rain over I-5 from Sacramento to Bellingham. Snow can be a problem over the high ground along I-5 in northern California and southern Oregon. More significant snow problems are likely over Donner Pass and to some extent over Snoqualmie Pass.

Storms are stacked up all the way to the east coast of Asia in the Pacific.
The cumulative effect of the storms will drop inches of rain over a week-long period moving forward and more than a yard of snow over the high country in the Sierra Nevada and part of the Cascades. The snow will give skiers a late-season boost.
In the pattern, more showery rainfall will occur over the northern part of the Great Basin with pockets of heavy snow of a couple of feet or more over the northern Rockies.
As far as Southern California and the deserts of southern Arizona and New Mexico are concerned, very little or no precipitation is likely in the pattern as a whole into next week. However, there can be a couple of flirts with showers on one or more occasions.

More Rain, Snow to Clobber West Coast