During the past week moisture from the tropics has been pumped into the Pacific Northwest by the "Pineapple Express". Resulting extreme rainfall has led to widespread flooding and landslides. The continued "training" of rainfall into the area has caused flooding in the Portland, Oregon area with at least one death reported. Western Washington is also on flood alert due to the deluge. Rainfall that occurred during the past week (December 2-9, 2015) was measured with data from NASA's Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG). IMERG found that many areas from northern California through the state of Washington had rainfall totals greater than 160 mm (6.3 inches). Even more extreme rainfall was measured by IMERG over the open waters of the Pacific Ocean where rainfall totals during the past week were found to be over 310 mm (12.2 inches).

Showers and thunderstorms are in the forecast for the Pacific Northwest during the next week so rainfall totals will continue to increase.