Extreme Precipitation and Flooding in Whatcom County

 Extreme flooding forced by extraordinary precipitation has flooded the town of Sumas and other locales in Whatcom County.

Landslides closed I5 and some other roads, and sewage overflows are threatening some water supplies in the area.

The pictures are stunning.

Downtown Sumas was flooded this morning.



The nearby town of Everson is flooded.


And landslides closed I5 near Bellingham:


The Nooksack River achieved its all-time record river stage.

The cause of these terrible conditions is very wet autumn followed by extremely heavy rainfall over the weekend.  Let me show you.

Here are the 72 hr totals ending at 6 PM today.  A number of locations reported 8-10 inches...unbelievable... with 8.94 inches as Sumas Mountain and 9.88 inches near the international border.  Orcas Island, which is closer to the Olympic Rainshadow, got around 5 inches.


But what made this even so deadly is that most of the precipitation fell in a 24-h period on Sunday (midnight to midnight).   This is shown below for the Sumas Mountain observing site.  Around 7 inches in 24 hours.  Wow.


I am happy to report that weather forecast models accurately predicted this torrential rain, something shown by the forecast of accumulated rain made on Friday at 4 AM for the total through 4 AM Monday.  Not bad.   Pretty impressive rainshadow to the NE of the Olympics.


You see the yellow colors....those are the heaviest amounts.

We are going to dry out during the next several days, but the damage has been done.

We are now "enjoying" the wettest autumn on record for many locations in western Washington...but that "honor" should be lost with the dry period ahead.  But the ground is saturated throughout the region, and the WA State DNR's landslide warning system has areas of concern, particularly Whatcom County and along the coast (the other area with lots of rain).


Winds

And yes, we had strong winds today with the intense front, with gusts reaching 50-65 miles per hour in places.  Whidbey Island is essentially blacked out, with large outages in the South Sound and elsewhere (see below)


We knew all this was coming..... the big question is how society can learn to use the increasing weather forecasting prowess to protect life and property.

I have said this many times, but it bears repeating: the first line of defense against extreme weather is excellent weather prediction, which should allow us to prevent most loss of life and injury and reduce economic damage. 

Deaths from extreme weather are plummeting around the world and better forecasting is one of the reasons.  You would not know that from what you read in the Seattle Times and many other media sources, which play up extreme weather as an apocalyptic threat to the existence of humanity.

Announcement:

I will be doing a book signing and dinner event at Ivar's Salmon House in Seattle on Wednesday, November 17th (6 PM).  You can come just to purchase a book and get it personalized or you can stay for a special dinner, where I will be giving a weather talk.   More information on the event is found here.  You need to make reservations for the dinner (only 80 spaces available). And information about the new edition of my book is here.

Only about 10 spots are left, so if you want to go, reserve a place soon.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why so little lightning in the Pacific Northwest? And a very nice weekend ahead.

Image
During the past 24-hours, there have been a few lightning strokes over the region (see below) but nothing to write home about (see below). It turns out that the Pacific Northwest and the remainder of the West Coast have some of the lowest frequencies of thunderstorms in the entire country (see below). But why?    My podcast provides the answer. And I also give the weekend forecast....and I think most will like what I have to say. To listen to my podcast, use the link below or access it through your favorite podcast service. Some major podcast servers:     Like the podcast? Support on Patreon 
Read more

The Time of Year You Can See the Air Move

Image
  Most of the time, you can not see the air move.   You can feel it, but the complex, turbulent motions are invisible to you, except when it interacts with leaves and branches on trees and plants. But for a few weeks of the year, the sky is full of small, cotton-like tuffs that like a natural MRI machine reveals the complex three-dimensional motions of the atmosphere.   Cottonwood season.  And we right in the middle of it.   Being cottonwood aware is of particular value this year.  It reveals the active dispersion and movement of air that makes the outdoors essentially COVID safe, and thus should be of some comfort for those nervous about transmission outside. Cottonwood seeds are embedded in small cotton-like fibers.   A million seeds weigh about 3 pounds.  Yes, each seed and tuff weights about .000003 pounds.   And that fact, plus the cottonwood tuff, means that these seeds fall VERY, VERY, VERY slowly.   So slowly that they are excellent markers for the three-dimensional flow of the
Read more

A Much Colder Than Normal April: But How Unusual?

Image
  April was a chilly month over the Northwest, but how chilly?     It turns out the answer depends on where you are located. The difference between this April's temperatures from normal across Washington State (below) shows that the entire state was well below normal.  The eastern side of the state was particularly frigid:  some areas were more than 6 degrees below normal.   Considering the west side of the state, the April mean temperatures at SeaTac Airport are plotted below.   This April was the coolest since 2011. April 2020 was in 15th place for the coolest April since the mid-1940s and was a bit more than 4F below normal.  So if you felt that you were cheated out of normal spring warmth...you are right. But if you really wanted to experience extraordinary April cold you had to be east of the Cascade crest. Consider Yakima.  Wow.  It had the third coldest April temperature since the mid-1940s.   And the all-time record in 1955 was only slightly colder. If you want a longer-te
Read more