Big Rain, So Far

We’re jumping the rain gun here, offering up some preliminary stats about this lasher of a storm.

But first a note about the photo: Yes, it’s King Salmon and no, nobody’s surprised about a little/lot of flooding in that low-lying, ‘tween-the-track-and-the-bay fisherman’s burg. Especially, says Jason Anderson at the Woodley Island office of the National Weather Service, when you’ve got high tides combined with a heavy storm with south winds whipping it all up. Although, it is sad to behold the sandbagged little espresso bar, with its chairs-up tables and no life inside at mid-morning on a day it’s supposed to be open from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Maybe it’s the flood, maybe it’s something else — we couldn’t reach the owners by phone to find out.

Anyway, Anderson offers these stats from weather stations on the rainfall so far, since the long-longed for storm began on Tuesday (he’ll have complete totals tomorrow morning when a break comes):

Gasque: 9.8 inches

Three miles north of Crescent City: 7.36

Crescent City airport: 5.93

Orleans: 4.88

Airport in Mckinleyville: 4.45

Kneeland — 2.92

Woodley Island: 3.23

Honeydew: 6

Bridgeville: 2.56

Willits: 1.92

It’ll rain lightly tonight here in Eureka — more down in Mendo — then there will be a break. “Then we’re right back at it” with another storm, says Anderson. It won’t be as big is this one, and there might be a wee break on Saturday. Then another whomper’s coming in on Sunday.

The storm is warm and mostly rain has fallen in the region, Anderson said — except in the cold, deep valley along the Highway 3 corridor between Weaverville and Trinity Center, where one to two feet of snow has fallen. The cold air was trapped in there, and the warm air just whooshed on over.

This article appears in The Debt Divide.