Still Raining

Bob came over and he drove me around today.  The side roads are horrible !! On some of them, one whole side is flooded with several inches of water.  I noticed as we crossed over the freeway several times today, it has been at a crawl each time.  It was nice to have him driving...he pulled up to the door of the Post Office for instance and I jumped out, went in took care of business and then when I stepped out the door he pulled up and I got back in the car.  So I didn't get drenched after all.  Anyway, I'm including the latest email weather information I get each day from KOMO TV in Seattle. Tomorrow it's back to work for me, I've already decided which route I'll take after seeing the conditions out there today.  

Dear Linda, The storm has gone from very wet to historically wet, as the National Weather Service declares that 7 rivers are now expected to reach record severity for flooding, with heavy rain now expected to fall through Monday night and into early Tuesday before tapering finally tapering off. The rivers that are set to see record flooding include the Snoqualmie, Skykomish, Snohomish, Stillaguamish, Carbon, Skagit and Cowlitz rivers. We've got more flooding specifics on our home page with the top stories there, so I'll just focus on the weather forecast itself here. And the latest forecast is not good news. That front is still stuck overhead, and now heavy rain is expected to fall through Monday night and not taper off until Tuesday morning. That means several more inches of rain in the meantime. How wet? In the western Washington lowlands, we're seeing rain totals from 2-4" with another 1-3" expected overnight. The mountains have already seen 10-12" and another 4-6" is expected on top of that through Tuesday morning. Seattle, as of 4 p.m., received 3.03" since midnight, and over 4" since the rain began Sunday. That 3.03", by the way, makes today the 4th wettest day ever so far, with more rain falling. For perspective, we usually get about 6" for the entire month of November, and most of Seattle's Top 10 wettest days ever are around 3". (The record being 5.02", set in October of 2003.) Snow levels are up around 10,000 feet, so it's all falling as rain up there. So as you can imagine, that's set the stage for the worst flooding we've seen...possibly ever. Or at least in the area's recorded history. It will also be windy with this storm, but the one bit of good news is that despite this storm being of significant strength, the center of the storm is expected to make landfall far enough north of the area that we aren't looking at major winds, but they will still be gusty to 40 mph in the Northwest Interior and along the north and central coast, and 20-30 mph in the Puget Sound area. Speaking of the coast, A HIGH SURF ADVISORY and a COASTAL FLOOD WATCH are in effect late today into Tuesday. Expect rip currents, high surf and minor beach erosion. Residents along the coast should monitor this very carefully. The rain slowly tapers off Tuesday morning. The rest of the day will feature scattered showers (and a possible Convergence Zone) and cooling temperatures, to where by afternoon we should be in the low-mid 50s. Wednesday will see just few showers amid sunbreaks, and then we're thinking it'll actually be a dry day Thursday. Highs each day will be around 50. Another storm comes ashore by Friday, but by then the rivers should be back in their banks. Also, this storm looks much cooler, with snow levels closer to 3,000 feet, meaning snow in the mountains and not so much water runoff. Cool showers for Saturday, and then cool rain again for Sunday with highs in the upper 40s. By Monday, it's even cooler with scattered showers and highs in the mid-upper 40s. Updated Friday 4:40 p.m. more... Sincerely, KOMO 4 Weather Producer Scott Sistek I'm off to finish up a few things that need to be done around here before I return to work.  Have a good evening........Linda