What’s next for Washington and Oregon in the wake of Wednesday’s storm? More storms of course!

As the storm responsible for the northward swell of snow across Washington pushes inland tonight, snow will diminish from west to east over the Evergreen State. However, the train of storms will continue to bombard the Northwest with rain and snow into next week.

Much of Washington will catch a breather Thursday into Friday, while snow spreads across the northern Rockies and onward toward the Midwest.

Coastal rain and inland snow will continue over much of Oregon and southern Washington Thursday with inches of rain at coastal low elevations and feet of snow falling over the high country as cold air sloshes around the region. Travel along stretches of I-82 and I-84 will be difficult with areas of heavy rain, ice and snow.

The next major storm will slam into much of Washington and Oregon Friday night and Saturday.

While this next storm is destined to bring rain to Seattle and Portland, it is the issue of rising snow levels that grabs our attention.

The rain itself will be heavy enough to cause urban and poor drainage area flooding along the coast and around sea level. However, over the intermediate elevations and interior river valleys that got hit with heavy snow recently, rapidly melting snow combined with the rain can lead to more serious flooding.

The different density of the snow, fluctuating temperatures and locally gusty winds will raise the avalanche danger in the Cascades.