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Highway wet and rocky
Nearly 8 inches of weekend rain in Gasquet Iliza Eaton of San Bernardino poses for a family photo Tuesday afternoon north of Gasquet. Normally trickling tributaries of the Smith River created temporary tourist attractions along U.S. Highway 199 after heavy weekend rains. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson While dropping nearly 8 inches of rain in Gasquet on Saturday and Sunday, and more than 3 inches on the coast, the rain that tapered off Tuesday came nowhere close to catching the region up to its normal precipitation for the rain year that ends June 30, said National Weather Service meteorologist Tony Ashford. The North Coast has received 80 percent of the rain it would have by this point in the rain year, Ashford said.
“The rain from this weekend was associated with a system moving across
the North Pacific,” Ashford said. “It should turn off for the next
couple of days, with a chance of more showers starting Thursday and
increasing in likelihood through Saturday.”
Ashford believes that despite being quite a bit behind the yearly average, the area’s total rainfall might still catch up before June 30. “Personally I think that we will be lower than we were on average last season,” Ashford said. “But with a couple of nice systems it could still be possible to catch up.” While the region may be behind, drivers on Highway 199 have been seeing large amounts of water pouring off the Smith River Canyon walls, said California Highway Patrol Officer Kent Davis. “We had two accidents on 199 over the weekend,” Davis said. “I’m not sure whether they were water related. But people really need to slow down when conditions get bad.” Davis said that when the ground gets saturated the threat of debris and rocks being on the road increases significantly. “People need to be really careful, you could be driving around a corner and run directly into rocks or other debris,” Davis said. |
