Oregon Public Broadcasting

Several inches of rain over the next couple of days along with warmer temperatures in the mountains will increase the chance of flooding, landslides, and avalanches in the Pacific Northwest.  Pete Springer reports.

Southwest Washington will take the brunt of this latest storm with forecasters predicting five to ten inches of rain there over the next couple of days.

The coast range will see four to eight inches of rain, and in the Willamette valley, one to three inches should fall. 

With the ground already saturated from previous storms, the potential for flooding is on the rise.

Tyree Wilde is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Portland.

Tyree Wilde “And we also got a lot of low elevation snow pack, especially out in the coast range a lot of snow is still below 2000 feet and that’s got quite a bit of water in it so as that rain falls into that snow pack there will be some water coming out of that snow pack with snow melt runoff that’s also going to be adding into the river systems.”

Wilde says that rain on snow also increases avalanche danger and the potential for more landslides similar to those triggered by heavy rain last week.