Atmospheric river to strike Western Washington with major rain ... in June?

Significant rain is forecast for Western Washington on the first day of June 2024, thanks to an atmospheric river that will drench the region for several days. But wait ... an atmospheric river? Don't those usually show up in the fall?

"Usually, we don't see these going into the end of May and the beginning of June," Meteorologist Trent Davis with the National Weather Service in Seattle told KUOW. "So that's kind of the drastic thing about this one."

"I don't know if there's a distinct season for these, but usually by the time we get into June, we're starting to dry out a little bit. So having this much rainfall of several inches into June ... it is a bit unusual to get this much rainfall."

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The Northwest is familiar with the atmospheric river phenomenon that dumps inches of rain on the region. Tropical areas deep in the the Pacific Ocean send strong moisture into the atmosphere, which then travels to the Northwest.

"Everyone's gonna see a good dosing of rain across Western Washington," Davis said.

• Rain is expected to dump on Washington Sunday evening through Tuesday afternoon. Most of the rain will come Sunday night into Monday morning.
• Seattle-metro area could see up to 1.5 inches.
• King, Snohomish, and Skagit counties could get between 2-4 inches.
• Expect the highest rainfall in the Olympic and Cascade mountains. Higher peaks could see more rain, which will lead to heavy runoff in rivers.
• Major river flooding is not expected, though the Snohomish and Skykomish rivers will be flowing quite full. Davis adds that the Snoqualmie River at Carnation could reach a minor flood stage.

Davis said some precipitation may linger in areas through Wednesday or Thursday, but the sun will show up by Friday. Above normal temps could follow.

"We are looking at a drier pattern coming up," Davis said. "It looks like a little bit warmer and drier weather late next week into the weekend, with some of the long-range forecasts suggesting that a really strong high pressure is going to build in. So in a way, I think it looks like it's kind of balancing out."

For now, if you had weekend plans to hit the trail or go camping — be prepared.

"Unfortunately, it seems like we're having an active weather weekend. So if you are planning to be out and about or maybe doing any camping ... plan to have ways to get weather information, should we have any flood warnings that go up," Davis said. "Definitely have a way to receive those warnings. And if any road closures do happen, just try to heed those and, 'Turn Around Don't Drown.'"

Could this atmospheric river help Washington's drought?

In short, yes. This dump of rain could help some areas of the state. Washington declared a statewide drought emergency in April. This came after the winter did not produce significant amounts of mountain snow that the region relies on in the summer.

The late spring atmospheric river can't solve the drought, but Davis said, "It's definitely going to help things here."

"It's a nuisance right now, but in the grand scheme of things, it's beneficial, both for water levels and just helping to mitigate fire, and bring our drought situation into a little bit better terms," he said.

"We probably need a couple of them, but it's definitely welcome news ... getting any added moisture, especially when it's not as common here, is going to help make a dent in things. It's also good for fire season because last year we started drying out a lot in June. So this is going to help, hopefully, slow down that threat for fires which was expected to be kind of higher later in the summer ... having this moisture is going to help kind of slow that progress of the fuels drying out."