The slow-motion disaster that we are witnessing on the west coast is unlike anything we have ever seen before.  A series of atmospheric rivers has already dumped trillions of gallons of water on the region, and trillions of gallons of additional water will fall before the end of the year.  This has caused some rivers to rise to the highest levels that we have ever seen.  Meanwhile, some areas in the Northwest have been repeatedly pummeled by extremely high winds.  As you will see below, some of the wind speeds that have been recorded are difficult to believe.  For a long time I have been warning my readers that weather patterns have been going nuts all over the globe, but of course many people will never be convinced until it actually happens where they live.  For tens of millions of Americans that live along the west coast, a wake up call has finally arrived.

According to the Weather Channel, the parade of storms that we have been witnessing will continue to roll on into next week…

A parade of Pacific storms accompanied by atmospheric rivers will continue to march into the West Coast into Christmas week, spreading the threat of heavy rain from already flooded areas of western Washington to Oregon and California.

To say it's been a terrible stretch of weather in parts of the West has been an understatement.

The last sentence in that quote made me smile.

Yes, "a terrible stretch of weather" would most certainly be an understatement…

First, record flooding hit parts of western Washington. Then, as flood-ravaged areas were recovering, a powerhouse windstorm blasted much of the Northwest and Rockies Wednesday, with winds clocked up to 144 mph and over 160 reports of wind damage in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado.

I can't recall a windstorm of this magnitude ever hitting the Pacific Northwest in modern times.

It is being reported that at least nine different states experienced wind speeds of over 100 mph…

High winds slammed the Pacific Northwest and Rockies Wednesday and Wednesday night, cutting power to three-quarters of a million customers at peak, according to PowerOutage.US. That number was down to 325,000 as of Thursday morning.

The highest wind gusts in the region were on mountain tops — 144 mph at Mount Coffin, Wyoming, 142 mph at Coldwater Ridge, Washington, and 138 mph at Mount Hood, Oregon. Winds gusted over 100 mph on mountaintops in at least nine different states.