Special Image: NASA's RapidScat Looks at Storm Affecting U.S. Pacific Northwest

From NASA's Hurricane Web Page:

Special Image: NASA's RapidScat Looks at Storm Affecting U.S. Pacific Northwest
A low pressure area packing strong winds and rain is affecting the U.S. Pacific Northwest and NASA's RapidScat instrument analyzed the winds in the system.
RapidScat measures sustained wind speeds at the ocean surface from its perch aboard the International Space Station. Surface winds are always lower thanspeeds at higher altitude. Because maximum sustained winds are not always equally distributed in a storm, the RapidScat instrument helps forecasters find the strongest quadrants of a storm.
RapidScat looked at the winds on January 5 and January 6 and saw the wind field or the area of strongest winds expand over 24 hours. On January 5, RapidScat showed an area southeast and south of the center with wind speeds up to 21 meters per second (46.9 mph/75.6 kph). That are expanded to the southwest of the center by January 6 covering a much larger area with sustained winds of the same strength.
This low pressure area is the next in a series of pacific storms were progressing inland today, Wednesday, January 7, 2016. The National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland noted that the storm "affected northern California early in the day and then will affect Southern California in a more persistent fashion from the afternoon into Wednesday night. Moderate to heavy precipitation is expected in the favored elevations near the coast and also in the Sierras."
Rob Gutro, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center /Images: NASA JPL, Doug Tyler