SEATTLE — A Wind Advisory expired on Tuesday, bringing an end to a rare late-season atmospheric river system that dumped rain and felled tree limbs across the region.
Maximum wind gusts of 15-25 mph were expected during the advisory. These winds were less impactful following the trimming done by Monday morning’s winds, but still resulted in intermittent outages across the region.
Due to excessive rainfall, the NWS issued a Flood Watch for King, Snohomish, Skagit, Mason, and Pierce counties Sunday morning through Wednesday morning. Heavy rain could lead to minor flooding of rivers, streams, creeks, and low-lying/flood-prone areas. The rivers impacted have already crested and will recede for the rest of Tuesday and overnight.
By later Tuesday, a large area of high pressure will begin building along the west coast by midweek. This will put western Washington into a sunny and warming pattern beginning Wednesday with highs by the weekend pushing well into the 70s - possibly some 80s.
Rain records
Rain totals for the month of June usually hit around 1.5 inches of rain for the entire month, and that was expected to be surpassed in the first three days thanks to this atmospheric river event.
A daily rainfall record was broken on Sunday in Seattle, according to the National Weather Service, as well as in Olympia and Hoquiam. Hoquiam saw its wettest June day ever since record-keeping began in 1953.
Sunday brought steady rain and accumulations in the 1- to 2-inch range along the coast and 0.5- to 1.25-inch range for the lowlands and 2-3 inches for the mountains. Significant, widespread rain fell overnight into Monday. The front moved through between 3:30-5:30 a.m. accompanied by heavy rain and winds gusting 35-45 mph in the windiest spots causing numerous downed limbs and trees causing power outages.
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