Weather Eye: Good soaking gives Northwest proper launch to rainy season

The heavy rain belt was a little slow to reach Clark County on Saturday, but when it did, it poured. Streets flooded, gutters overflowed and traffic came to a crawl along freeways and byways. As of 5 p.m. more than 1 inch of rain fell in downtown Vancouver and more than 2 inches in the foothills and outlying areas.

It was still coming down although beginning to lighten up in time for trick-or-treating. Still, this will be remembered as a damp Halloween.

Rainfall along the coast measured more than 2 inches in many locations and up to 5 inches in the coastal ranges. The Grays River in Southwest Washington reached flood stage Saturday afternoon.

I spent the weekend at the beach house near Ocean Park and can tell you it was a blustery night Friday and into the first half of Saturday. The rain came sideways as usual, and the house rattled a few times as winds reached 50 mph.

The little lake behind my house had gotten low due to the dry summer. It finally had a refill and is back up where it was seven months ago. There were puddles in the beach sand. You don’t see that often. It couldn’t soak in fast enough!

This was just what the Northwest needed, a good soaking to launch the rainy season. The runoff will help our local low reservoirs such as Swift, Merwin and Yale.

We have a cooler air mass with us for several days with scattered showers, and maybe hail or thunder. Highs will be in the 50s, where they should be this time of the year. Some snow will fall at pass levels but nothing out of the ordinary.

Patrick Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at http://patricktimm.com.

Related Stories