SEATTLE – Wet weather moving through the Northwest has raised the chance of rivers flooding in Western Washington and avalanche danger in the Cascades.
The National Weather Service has issued a flood warning for the Tolt, Snoqualmie and Puyallup rivers through Wednesday because of heavy rain and melting snow in the Cascades. Minor to moderate flooding of farmlands and low-lying roads is expected around Carnation, Duvall and Orting.
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Most of Western Washington was under a flood watch for Tuesday through Thursday afternoon.
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Interstate 90 between North Bend and Ellensburg was closed Tuesday morning due to avalanche danger. The Washington State Department of Transportation reopened it just after noon.
KING 5 Meteorologist Rich Marriott said an atmospheric river, more commonly known as a pineapple express, will bring increasingly wet and mild air and widespread rain on Tuesday.
“The generally onshore winds could produce a rain shadow over central Puget Sound (part of Pierce, King and possibly Snohomish county), which would lead to lighter rainfall in that area,” Marriott said.
Highs should be in the low-to-mid 50s and gusty winds over the Puget Sound area and north of Everett late Tuesday raise the possibility of spotty power outages.
Freezing levels in the mountains are expected to rise to above 6,000 feet. On top of recent heavy snow, that creates an extreme avalanche danger in the Cascades and Olympics.
Rainfall amounts of 4 to 6 inches are expected in the central Cascades through Wednesday afternoon.
Flooding also is possible in the Wenatchee River basin. Forecasters say strong localized winds are possible Tuesday night around Wenatchee.
Some long range forecast models indicate there could be some lowland snow later Saturday.
