By Rod Hill on 2014-02-18
Sunday night's storm met the challenge of being the strongest in a series of February weather fronts to pass Portland. The photo above shows high water over highway 30. Localized flooding has been reported from the coast to the valley. Portland saw nearly an inch of rain fall during the overnight, early morning storm. Crews also spent Monday cleaning up from high winds. The peak south wind gust of 55 mph at PDX was the strongest recorded since March 13th of 2011 when a mini-windstorm reported a west gust of the same speed.
This month's stormy weather has pushed total PDX rainfall to more than 3.75 inches for the month, which is above the February average of 3.66 inches. To date, Portland's water year total is only 56% of normal, but on the right track! The news is better for the Mt. Hood snowpack where a snow depth of 98 inches at 5,400 feet is holding 36 inches of water. The Mt. Hood snowpack is currently 84% of normal for the season! Highway 26 at Government Camp will likely be snow covered at times through Thursday with more heavy snow to come this week!
Looking forward, the first 10 days of March are likely to see above normal rainfall. There are signs that March and April precipitation will be at least close to normal.
High water & flooding possible through Tuesday