A powerhouse storm was forecast to slam into the Pacific Northwest late Monday and into Tuesday, bringing heavy rain, howling winds and mountain snow. What’s unusual about this storm is that it includes remnants of Hurricane Ana, a central Pacific storm that blew by Hawaii last…
A powerhouse storm was forecast to slam into the Pacific Northwest late Monday and into Tuesday, bringing heavy rain, howling winds and mountain snow. What’s unusual about this storm is that it includes remnants of Hurricane Ana, a central Pacific storm that blew by Hawaii last weekend.
“Another bout of drenching rain and the potential for tree-toppling winds is expected from the northwestern U.S. to British Columbia,” according to AccuWeather meteorologist Michael Doll.
The storm follows another storm that blasted the region over the weekend, killing one person.
“There is only one other case of the remnants of a hurricane that formed in the Eastern or Central Pacific to significantly impact western Canada,” said meteorologist Jeff Masters of the Weather Underground. That was an unnamed September 1975 storm that maintained hurricane strength as far north as the west coast of British Columbia.
Masters said the 1975 storm was the only hurricane on record to make it farther to the northeast of Hawaii than Ana. Ana maintained hurricane strength as far north as southern Oregon, though several hundred miles to the west.
“No pure tropical cyclones have survived at that latitude and longitude. The water is just too cold and the wind shear too strong,” said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman with the National Hurricane Center.
However, some typhoons from the western Pacific have made it all the way to the West Coast: “The greatest example is the 1962 Columbus Day storm, that greatest non-tropical storm to hit the West Coast in at least a century,” said University of Washington meteorologist Cliff Mass. That storm, which began as Typhoon Freda in the western Pacific, killed dozens of people, destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of homes and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
Typhoons are what hurricane-like storms are called in the western Pacific.
In the next couple of days, Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., could have another inch or more of rainfall. The coastal ranges and foothills of the Cascades may receive another 4 inches or more.
Wind gusts along the coast could exceed 60 mph, with gusts of 40 to 50 mph farther inland. Gusts of 40 mph or higher are possible for Seattle and Portland, Ore. Snow is also likely in the higher elevations of the Cascades.