Hurricane Sergio in the East Pacific never rose past a Cat 2 and dissipated into a Tropical Storm on November 20th. The resultant heat that sustained it had oscillated to the Gulf of Mexico where the current vortex seen in this image near Pritchard Island, South Carolina. It took shape and is now moving along the coast once it had built up enough vorticity, assisted by the Arctic Vortex seen in extreme white. This mess culminated in huge amounts of rain at about 36 North Latitude.
Current 12 hour loop (click on)
Seattle, Washington exceeded any record on the books for rainfall in one month and November still has 8 more days.
SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/293299_weather22.html
Rainfall record taken by storm
Sea-Tac mark shattered; wet holiday looms
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
By AMY ROLPHP-I REPORTER
It's now the wettest month in the history of measurements at Sea-Tac -- a somewhat significant milestone in a region where drizzle usually accompanies three seasons out of four.
Rainfall at Sea-Tac Airport Tuesday night topped off the stormy month's measurements at 13.11 inches, shattering the record of 12.92 inches set in January 1953.
"This is unusual, isn't it?" said Lara Gordon, visiting from Puerto Rico. She coped with the Seattle weather in downtown Tuesday.
Meteorologists had been expecting the record to be set in the afternoon, but just as it was about to be broken, rain clouds started moving out around Sea-Tac.
"Showers have kind of been hit or miss at Sea-Tac," said Dennis D'Amico, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
There's still the December 1933 Seattle record of 15.33 inches accumulated at the Federal Building.
But even if the 53-year-old Sea-Tac record hadn't been broken last night, it wouldn't have stayed intact for long.
"We're expecting a pretty good storm for Thanksgiving and Friday," D'Amico said.
That storm will be complete with wind and rain, as well as snow in the passes, he said.
Thunder and lightning tore into Seattle Tuesday, striking about 20 pole-top transformers and causing power failures throughout the city, according to Seattle City Light.
The lightning strikes resulted in power failure for at least 1,350 City Light customers Tuesday afternoon.
It also sent a Mill Creek man to the hospital for a brief time. Al Fitz told KOMO/4 he was getting out of his truck at his home when a lightning bolt struck an evergreen tree, with the electrical shock from it traveling through the ground, knocking him unconscious. He was home Tuesday night and was expected to make a full recovery.
D'Amico described activity in the grumbling, electrified skies as a "low-based thunderstorm, which is not all that uncommon for the area."
A KOMO/4 camera on top of the Columbia Center recorded one flash of lightning that appeared to strike the Space Needle and the Washington Mutual Tower. No damage was reported to either.
Gov. Chris Gregoire asked President Bush on Tuesday to declare parts of the state a federal disaster area, requesting that people in 11 counties become eligible for federal help after flooding earlier this month. The request covers Clark, Cowlitz, Grays Harbor, King, Lewis, Pierce, Skagit, Skamania, Snohomish, Thurston and Wahkiakum counties.
