Weather & Science
Powerful Storm to Slam California to Northwest With Rain and Snow
- Pacific system likely to strike Northern California hardest
- Atmospheric river caps a month of peril for California
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A strong Pacific storm will begin to uncoil across Oregon, Washington and Northern California through the weekend, promising heavy rain and snow that will replenish water supplies but could also unleash destruction.
Known as an atmospheric river, the storm will begin dropping rain across the Pacific Northwest Thursday and then head south into Northern California, where it will remain anchored through the weekend into next week, said Frank Pereira, a senior branch forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center. As much as 7 inches (18 centimeters) of rain will fall, with up to 12 inches of snow or more across the Cascade and Sierra Nevada ranges.