There goes the sun

Rain, possible flooding seen by forecasters

What was the driver thinking? A car loaded with surfboards approaches the coast on snowy U.S. Highway 199 on Monday. Del Norte Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

The North Coast is heading into more typical winter weather this week after a long dry spell. A series of storms will arrive tonight into Wednesday and continue through the weekend.

Five inches of rain is possible this week in Crescent City and up to 8 inches inland around Gasquet and in the hills, said Matthew Kidwell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Eureka.

The forecast for the next two weeks calls for more precipitation than normal, Kidwell said, “a switch to more of a typical wet winter.”

The heavy rain will likely cause water to pond on the roads, river levels will likely rise above monitor stage and there’s potential for rock slides, he said.

Winds will be blowing 20–30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph on the coast and 60 mph in particularly wind-prone areas. With strong winds, trees and power lines could be brought down, Kidwell said.

A bathroom along the Smith River near Myrtle Creek seems part of a Christmas card scene. Del Norte Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

Little rain showers are forecast to continue today, but “Tuesday night, late, the rain is going to change to a warmer, misty rain ... getting heavier and heavier throughout the day (Wednesday),” Kidwell said.

This first storm could produce up to 2 inches of rain and possibly more inland, he said.

Coastal flooding in low-lying areas is possible when a high tide combines with a storm surge from southerly winds late Tuesday into Wednesday morning. A coastal flood watch is in effect for that time period. High tide is at 6:28 a.m. Wednesday.

The rain will likely taper off Thursday, but late that night “another wave is coming through into Friday,” Kidwell said.

That storm could produce another 1-3 inches of rain, he said, adding that rain will continue through the weekend. Coastal flooding could once again be a concern, especially with high tide early Friday.

This series of storms will pump up the rainfall total for Del Norte.

Rainfall in December was less than half of what Del Norte normally gets. At the airport, 4.34 inches fell that month, much lower than the average of 11.27 inches.

Around Crescent City, 21.15 inches had fallen from July 1 (the start of the rain year) to Dec 31. That’s 70 percent of the normal 30.5 inches for the first six months of the rain year, Kidwell said.

“That’s not in the top ten driest,” he said.

The driest year on record for the North Coast is 1976. That year, 8.85 inches had fallen by the end of December and it only rained 21.45 inches that entire year, Kidwell said.

It’s also been really dry so far this month, well below normal. By Sunday, for the first half of the month, there had been only 0.63 inches of rain in Crescent City while 5.92 inches is normal.

This has been the seventh-driest start to January in local recorded history, Kidwell said. In 1946, there was no rain for the first 15 days of the month, he said.

“A few weeks’ stretch with very little is not that uncommon,” Kidwell said.

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