After a relatively benign first half of the month — with only about a half-inch of precipitation in two weeks — we're likely to get that much dumped on us on Tuesday alone, the National Weather Service says.
“The Big Dark” is about to begin, as Dustin Guy of the National Weather Service in Seattle likes to describe it.
After a relatively benign first half of the month — with only about a half-inch of precipitation in two weeks — we’re likely to get that much dumped on us on Tuesday alone, he said.
In a satellite image tweeted out by the weather service on Monday, a series of weather systems can be seen spread out from China all the way across the ocean to British Columbia. As Guy said, it’s “one long stretch of moisture a few thousands miles long that will be hitting us in the face starting tomorrow.”
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“That’s our unsettled pattern for the foreseeable future,” he said.
The first storm will hit early Tuesday, followed by a stronger system that evening, which will provide a thorough soaking for the Puget Sound region through Thursday. The weather service predicts a pattern of showers afterward, and then another storm system to barrel through over the weekend.
Mid-week, gusts of wind could reach up to 40 mph, toppling some weak trees and ripping down branches, said Johnny Burg, a weather service meteorologist. He expects some power outages.
Localized urban flooding is also a concern.
Many trees have yet to shed their leaves. The gusts could clog gutters and storm drains with leaves, Burg said, and send water into the streets. Most of the region’s rivers are running low and are not expected to flood.
Burg said people should check on their emergency gear, like flashlights and weather radios, and prepare to be without power.
A storm of this nature is not unexpected.
It is the beginning of our rainy season, after all. Just last year, the first half of October was relatively dry but was followed by two weeks of weather so wet it led to record rainfall for the month, Guy said.
Still, he said, it will be unlike anything we’ve had since the middle of March. Another tweet by the weather service forecasts that the Puget Sound will get a total of anywhere from 2 to 5 inches of rain throughout the week.
“Once we get to the middle of October, we pretty much get two things: the dark and the dim. Dark during the night and dim at day,” Guy said.
Staff reporter Evan Bush contributed to this report.