Best Weather Images of the Pacific Northwest Storm Onslaught

Since the final days of November, the Northwest United States has been barraged by one storm system after another, packed with heavy rainfall, mountain snow and strong winds at times. This has led to flooding, landslides and power outages in the region in recent days.

(NEWS: Northwest Storm Impacts)

Given the extreme nature of this stormy weather pattern, it's also produced a number interesting images from a meteorological perspective. Below we've compiled some of the best images so far.

This first spectacular visible satellite image shows a strengthening low pressure system over the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 9 just prior to its impact on the Pacific Northwest and northern California. Visible satellite imagery shows how the storm would generally look if viewed by the naked eye from space.

Here is another visible satellite image of the same storm on Dec. 9 in the Pacific Ocean.

As that storm moved towards southwestern Canada early Dec. 10, radar showed what some might think was a hurricane's eye near the low pressure center. Of course, this storm system was not tropical in nature, but powerful nonetheless. For reference, western Washington is on the right-center and lower right portions of the image.

On Dec. 8, the pipeline of moisture feeding the flooding rainfall extended into the western Pacific Ocean near the Philippines. This is shown by the narrow blue strip illustrating moisture in the atmosphere extending from the northwestern United States southwestward across the Pacific Ocean. This measure of moisture in the atmosphere is called precipitable water by meteorologists.

Another way to look at the moist pipeline can be seen in this visible satellite image from Dec. 8. Notice the long swath of cloud cover from the Northwest U.S. into the Pacific Ocean.

The persistent stormy weather has been supplied by a powerhouse jet stream in the northern Pacific Ocean that is shown in this graphic from Dec. 7. Wind speeds in that jet stream – located roughly 30,000 feet above the earth's surface – were 190+ mph, according to the National Weather Service. The strongest winds are shown in the red and white shadings on the image. For reference, Washington, Oregon and northern California are on the lower right.

Early on in this parade of Pacific storms, water vapor satellite imagery captured one storm system crashing into the Northwest on Dec. 3, while another well-defined area of low pressure was spinning in the Gulf of Alaska.

Finally, this graphic shows the estimated precipitation totals in the Northwest so far this month as of early Dec. 10. White, pink and red shadings show where the heaviest amounts of rain have fallen, though keep in mind some of this has fallen as snow in higher elevations, or a combination of snow and rain. Parts of western Washington and northwest Oregon have seen more than a foot of rain, with at least one location topping 18 inches in northwest Oregon.

PHOTOS: Parade of Pacific Storms Pound the Northwest