DEADLY WINTER STORM HITS PACIFIC NORTHWEST
The governor of Washington state declared a state of emergency
on 3 December 2007 as a strong winter storm dropped copius rainfall
in the Pacific northwest. A strong upper level jet stream known as
the the Pineapple Express was transporting warm moist air from
the tropics into the area resulting in flooding and mudslides. On the surface, wind gusts of over 81 mph were reported. Heavy snow and ice were also being dumped in the mountains.
The TRMM-based, near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center monitors rainfall over the global Tropics. MPA rainfall totals are shown here for the period from 28 November to
4 December 2007. The recent rainfall combined with other rainfall over
the past week resulted in precipitation totals of over 6 inches (150 mm)
in western Washington state.
TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA
Images and caption by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC)
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The governor of Washington state declared a state of emergency
on 3 December 2007 as a strong winter storm dropped copius rainfall
in the Pacific northwest. A strong upper level jet stream known as
the the Pineapple Express was transporting warm moist air from
the tropics into the area resulting in flooding and mudslides. On the surface, wind gusts of over 81 mph were reported. Heavy snow and ice were also being dumped in the mountains.
