Weather Eye: The rain isn’t over, but look for drying trend soon

No need to tell you that it was wet over the weekend. Very wet. Like record-setting wet. I believe almost all reporting stations broke their all-time September monthly rainfall records before the clock struck midnight Monday. So no need to summarize all of them here; it would require the whole weather page.

That includes Vancouver and Portland, where records go back to the 19th century. As of 5 p.m. Monday my monthly total here in Salmon Creek was 6 inches, more than half that falling over the weekend.

I will list a few of the most impressive rainfall amounts from 10 a.m. Friday to 8 a.m. Monday. Castle Rock, 4.82 inches; Kelso/Longview, 3.32 inches; Larch Mountain, 5.29 inches; Swift Creek (Mount St. Helens), 15.30 inches; Swift Creek Dam, 8.23 inches; June Lake (Mount St. Helens) 15.00 inches; and Dry Creek (probably not so dry now), 9.71 inches.

In Oregon the coastal mountains had 5-11 inches of rain, with Lee’s Camp off Highway 6 at 11.27 inches. Rivers and creeks were running high some over flood stage. The good news was most rivers were at very low stages, so no widespread flooding.

A F1 tornado touched down at Frederickson in Pierce County about 7:20 a.m. Monday. It had winds of 110 mph, caused some damage to buildings and blew over several rail boxcars. Damage estimated at $25,000. A funnel cloud was reported in Oregon on Monday as well.

Although the steady rain was intense at times over the weekend, the showers that moved through Monday morning were even stronger. At least a category 10 in the frog strangler listing. As of this writing I have not heard from my resident frog in the backyard. Hopefully he wasn’t a victim of the downpours.

More showers today and Wednesday and then a drying trend for two or three days. Didn’t I say that last week?