Along the coast, over 2 inches of rain fell Monday, with upward of 3 or 4 inches in the Cascades. With our high freezing levels, there was plenty of snowmelt.
Our local streams were rising and off-color Monday afternoon, with the East Fork of the Lewis River raging down toward the Columbia River. It was breezy at times, too — not good umbrella weather, but more of the rain-parka type.
Rain will continue off and on today into Wednesday, and then finally the atmospheric river will dissipate, and we will get back to cool showers, with snow back down to the passes and below after midweek. We will have highs in the 50s, dropping to the upper 40s to near 50 degrees as the week wears on.
Snoqualmie Pass on I-90, the main east-west route in Washington, was closed due to the threat of avalanches Monday, and ski resorts on Mount Hood were closed due to the wet conditions and high avalanche danger.
The flow in the East Fork Lewis River went from 400 cubic feet per second on Sunday to over 7,000 cubic feet per second on Monday. And it was still rising.
Of course, we need the precipitation, but as it happens sometimes, we don’t need it to fall with such intensity in a short period of time. Nature controls the flow.
On a bright note, the sun will set after 6 p.m. Friday. We are getting there, and daylight saving time is getting close as well.
With the heavy downpours and blustery winds Monday, my daffodils were bowing their heads toward the ground.
We’ll chat on Thursday.
