There has always been a close connection between Hawaii and Washington, and that relationship was on display over the past few days.
A strong Kona storm, with powerful, southwesterly flow, rammed into the Hawaiian Islands, producing intense rainfall. Check out the totals over the past 48 h around Oahu (below)
Many locations received more than 10 inches, with some reaching as high as 20 inches. Major flooding has resulted.
This moisture continued toward the Pacific Northwest (see the total atmospheric moisture from yesterday morning below). As you know, these moisture plumes are also called atmospheric rivers.
When that moisture reached our region, it was forced to rise on our terrain, resulting in heavy precipitation. To see how much...check out the 72 hr totals shown below.
Wow. Several locations received over 6 inches,
As a result, several of our rivers are at major flood stage, with the National Weather Service issuing serious flood warnings on BOTH sides of the Cascades.
The NOAA River Forecast Center is predicting serious flooding on many local rivers (see below).
For example, the Snoqualmie River near Carnation is now at major flood stage (see below), something that is unusual this late in the season.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, much of the heavy rain/flooding area is "abnormally dry." I have some colorful language to describe their analysis, but this is a family-friendly blog. I will Kona deal with them 😁
It was rainy and windy, but both Wednesday and Friday ended up with dry, usable afternoons (despite weather.com consistently indicating heavy afternoon showers until the timing was only a few hours away).
ReplyDeleteYesterday was particularly mild, and it got me wondering if there was ever a year where the first day of spring was warmer than the first day of summer. Indeed, it looks like that has happened once - 2010. Spring arrived with a 67 degree day, while summer came in at 63 degrees.
All lanes of northbound Interstate 5 are still closed just south of Bellingham between mileposts 248 and 249 after two landslides struck Thursday night, and the slope remains unsafe for immediate clearance work. https://www.facebook.com/WSDOT/posts/pfbid02z8qpMgSb9SAm7ezUFXW6vVwBpr2A7G6UXuTXpsA2pwEvmGze4mufqYyFD5JNUcsgl?rdid=RHkIPHfcwnxHoQsX#
ReplyDeleteLooks like they had to dump all the water in Kecheelus Lake? What a crazy year for the Yakima basin.
ReplyDeleteHow can the areaa that have been expierencing heavy rain and flooding be abnormally dry? If they were abnormally dry, they likely wouldn't be having major flooding.
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