Storm in the Pacific Northwest

A series of powerful storms drenched the Pacific Northwest between November 28 and December 4, 2007. The storms brought hurricane-force winds with gusts greater than 190 kilometers per hour (120 miles per hour) and drenching rain. The heavy rain caused floods and landslides that closed roads, including Interstate 5, and trapped hundreds, reported the Associated Press.

This image shows rainfall totals as recorded by the Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The heaviest rain is shown in dark red, while areas of relatively light rain are blue. As this image shows, the bulk of the rain was concentrated on western Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, where the Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis recorded more than 150 millimeters (6 inches) of rain. Bremerton, Washington, located on the western shore of Puget Sound (immediately across the sound from Seattle), saw 10.78 inches of rain, said the Associated Press.

The Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis is based in part on data collected by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, which came into service in November 1997 with the primary mission of measuring rainfall in the tropics. TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency, JAXA.

---

NASA image produced by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC).

Published December 4, 2007
Data acquired December 4, 2007

Source:

TRMM