United States

By Courtney Spamer, Meteorologist

January 07, 2013; 1:56 PM

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A storm slowly moving onshore will bring prolonged coastal rain with mountain and inland snow to the Northwest.

The first round of rain continued on Monday, with rain along the Washington and Oregon coasts.

But this system will push eastward through the day, bringing snow west of the Cascades and as far eastward as the Blue Mountains.

As of the midday hours Monday, 7.0 inches of snow has fallen around Spokane, Wash. Over a half a foot of snow has also fallen just east of the Cascades in Plain and Leavanworth, Wash. Easton, Wash. has received close to a foot of snow.

This is only the beginning, as the storm creating this wave of precipitation is still well offshore.

Tuesday is expected to be slightly drier, with the Washington and Oregon valleys missing the precipitation.

Rain is expected to continue along the coasts and snow will continue in the Blue Mountains of Idaho and western Montana.

On Tuesday night and Wednesday, the stalled low controlling this storm will finally move onshore.

Rain will stay west of the Cascades and in northern California. A wintry mix and snow will move inland for Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana.

The bulk of the storm will move eastward into the central Rockies and Plains for Thursday, but a bit of snow and rain will still linger in the Northwest.

While the region has been getting stuck in wet patterns many times since October, many cities are behind on rain since the new year.

Seattle, which normally gets 5.57 inches of rain in January, has only gotten 8 percent of that total so far.

This also applies to cities farther inland. Spokane, Wash., only has 38 percent of the rain that they normally have at this time of the year. Boise, Idaho, has been even drier, only receiving 1 percent of the precipitation the city normally gets in January.

The incoming rain and snow through this week will help to alleviate these new year deficits.