And the rain came

 

Northwest weather made the national news, so you may wonder about our little Twisp house, perched on the edge of the Methow River. 

As you see from the red dots, this is a western Washington flooding event, caused by warm rain from the Pineapple Express melting the snow pack at high elevations. Most of the moisture from these tropical storms doesn't make it over the crest of the Cascade Mountains. 

The Methow was trickling along this morning at just 630 cfs. Compare that to 12,000 cfs last May. Our risk comes in the spring, if the snow melts too fast on the eastern slopes of the Cascades. But I feel for the people in these river communities near Seattle. The last thing you want to see a few weeks before Christmas.

The good news is, the rain will turn to snow again in the mountains as the temperature drops. It was almost 60 yesterday in Seattle. Everything is waterlogged, so we're waiting until next week to get a Christmas tree. Picking out a tree in a rainy parking lot is pretty depressing.

I'm off to the Cafe this morning and it will be good to get out of the house.