Rain returns on Tuesday, California continues to deal with atmospheric river

The rain returns and Seattle is looking at a typical winter week.

The National Weather Service says there will be a 40% chance of rain tonight. It will be mostly cloudy with a low of around 42 degrees.

There’s a 50% chance of rain Tuesday with a high near 50. Tuesday night the odds of rain is closer to 70%.

Rain is likely Wednesday during the day with the high around 48. Winds kick up with gusts of 20 mph possible.

Top of the morning, Western Washington. Fairly typical weather is in store this week for mid-January’s standards. #wawx pic.twitter.com/lvORTbc8de

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) January 16, 2023

Here’s KIRO 7 TV meteorologist Nick Allard’s take on the week ahead:

Tomorrow looks mainly dry with at least partly sunny skies. Clouds will increase in the afternoon ahead of another round of rain. The rain will pick up early Wednesday and be around during the day, but won’t be super heavy and we could have some breaks in between waves. Temps will be seasonal in the upper-40s. It should be mostly dry on Thursday and through most of Friday before some rain moves in Friday night. That rain will continue into Saturday morning before tapering off to scattered showers and sunbreaks during the day. Sunday looks dry and partly sunny!

In California, relentless storms from a series of atmospheric rivers have saturated the steep mountains and bald hillsides scarred from wildfires along much of the coast, causing hundreds of landslides this month.

So far the debris has mostly blocked roads and highways and has not harmed communities as in 2018 when mudslides roared through Montecito, killing 23 people and wiping out 130 homes.

But more rain is in the forecast, increasing the threat.

Experts say California has learned important lessons from the Montecito tragedy and has more tools to pinpoint the hot spots and more basins and nets are in place to capture the falling debris before it hits homes. The recent storms are putting those efforts to the test as climate change produces more severe weather.

KIRO 7 TV and the Associated Press contributed to this report