Videos of NW Rivers

Here in the Northwest we have something better than storm chasing....after big rainfall events, head to the rivers, and particularly major falls...if you can get there. Some amazing videos of local rivers.

Here is the South Fork of the Stillaguamish at Granite Falls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPs-Ggmk6JA

or Snoqualmie Fallshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chqHvRMyYRM

A good summary of the NWS flood warnings is found at:

http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/forecasts.php?wfo=sew&view=1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1&toggles=10,7,8,2,9,15,6

Here is a graphic from it showing observed or potential flooding around the area:

A number of flooding river and some represent major or moderate flooding (Skokomish, Snohomish, Stillaguamish, Satsop, Skykomish). How is this done? The National Weather Service takes rainfall observations and atmospheric model forecasts and use them to drive hydrological models of the flow in local rivers. These simulations create plots of future streamflow in time called hydrographs. We run such as system at the UW as well--here is an example of the output for the north fork of the Stillaguamish near Arlington: