More Heavy Rain, River Flooding, even Stronger Winds Pound Snoqualmie Valley

UPDATE |  11/18/15, 6:30AM

SR 203 is closed at the 202/203 roundabout to Tolt Hill Road due to water over the roadway.  SR 202 was closed overnight from The Falls to the 202/203 roundabout due to water over the road

UPDATE |  11/17/15, 7:30PM

Looking at the doppler radar, it appears a convergence zone has set up and is affecting the Snoqualmie Valley.  The Snoqualmie River has now reached a phase 4 flood level, running at 42,100 cfs as of 6:15PM.

According to KOMO News Weather Producer Scott Sistek, today Rattlesnake Ridge picked up a 115mph wind gust. Wow!

UPDATE |  11/17/15, 5PM

The City of North Bend has closed the following roads due to flooding:

• Mt Si Boulevard between Arby’s Restaurant and Safeway Gas Station
• Boalch Avenue NW between NW 14th Street and the North Bend City Limits

The Public Works Department reminds residents to not move or go around any road closed barricades.

The Snoqualmie River was running at about 37,000 cfs at 4:15PM.

UPDATE |  11/17/15, 3PM

The City of Snoqualmie lowered the  forecasted crest for the Snoqualmie River from 48,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) to approximately 40,000 cfs – expected to happen around at 10PM, November 17th. As of 3:15PM, the sum of the rivers was at 34,500 cfs.

The Department of Emergency Management is monitoring river flow changes and the Public Works Division is monitoring roads for any needed closures.

The following Snoqualmie roads are closed at this time:

• Meadowbrook Bridge
• SE Mill Pond Road is closed from SR 202 to the Meadowbrook Bridge.
• SE Reinig Road is closed from 396^th Drive to the Meadowbrook Bridge.

Sand and sand bags are available (free of charge) in Snoqualmie at the King Street parking lot and in North Bend  at the Public Works Shop located at 1155 E North Bend Way.

Tanner Electric reports outages in Ames Lake and North Bend and says they are aware that trees are down on Edgewick Road and Middle Fork Road, with wires on the ground. Crews were planning to head to North Bend once they deal with the Ames Lake outage.

The PSE outage map indicates about 200 customers are without power in North Bend and Snoqualmie, as well as well as about 400-500 in Issaquah and another close to 300 customers in the Fall City/Preston area. Many of the outages have been caused by falling trees.  Sammamish has been especially hit hard with close to 3,000 without power.

King County Flood patrols are monitoring rivers, according to KC Natural Resources and Parks – and they tweeted out this photo of the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River in North Bend.  Reader Rhonda Cole sent in the second photo of entrance to Snoqualmie’s Three Forks Dog Park.

UPDATE |  11/17/15, 11:15AM

According to KOMO News Weather Producer Scott Sistek, we are entering a couple of hour period where the winds will be the strongest and rains the heaviest with this latest storm hitting the region.

Sistek said to expect wind gust of 45-60mph for the next [approximate] two hours. North Bend Weather picked up a 51mph gust and Mount Si HS reported a 45mph gust. The Snoqualmie River continues to rise, with the sum of the forks hitting 27,000 cfs at 11:15AM.

The PSE outage map reports scattered outages in North Bend and in Issaquah – but still under 500 customers affected.

UPDATE |  11/17/15, 8AM

As of 7:15AM the Snoqualmie River had reached a phase 3 flood level, with the sum of the forks running at about 23,000cfs.  Latest predictions have it cresting Wednesday afternoon/evening at just over 40,000cfs (sum of forks).

Weather stations in North Bend and Snoqualmie were picking up wind gusts close to 40MPH. WSDOT reported early this morning a tree had come down across eastbound I-90 at exit 27 and was blocking the right two lanes.

PSE outage map reports a few scattered outages in the North Bend area. The Issaquah area is also reporting roughly under 500 outages.

ORIGINAL STORY

Here we go again.

Fresh off a two-day storm where it seemed the gray and rain would never subside – except when it switched to snow for parts of the Snoqualmie Valley early Sunday morning – the National Weather Service says Mother Nature is back for a BIG curtain call.

Rain, Wind, Flooding River – Press Repeat

That means once again, a plethora of weather watches and warnings are being issued for our area – including a High Wind Watch and another Flood Watch and snow in the Cascades, too.

The ‘fun’ starts Monday afternoon, November 16, 2015 when more heavy rain courtesy of an atmospheric river aimed right at Washington heads our way. Hence another Flood Watch for the Snoqualmie River (the third in three weeks)  starts at Tuesday at 4AM and runs for a couple of days.

Luckily, the Snoqualmie River has receded some from the weekend storm, but it’s going to rise again rapidly as 2-5 inches of rain are possible over the next couple of days. And doubly lucky is the fact that the rain will start as snow in the mountains before switching over to rain Monday evening.  Snoqualmie Pass could get 6-10 inches of snow followed by plenty of rain (3-6 inches), keeping pressure on our mountain fed river.

Forecasters warn that because local rivers are already running high and the ground is very saturated, run-off will increase. According to river flow predictions, the Snoqualmie River will rise higher than the November 13th-14th storm – this time just reaching a phase 4 flood level, not near the levels of the damaging floods of 2006 or 2009.

The City of Snoqualmie says its Department of Emergency Management is monitoring river flow changes and that waters will rise throughout Tuesday, November 17 with a river crest of approximately 48,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) late Tuesday evening.

The Snoqualmie Public Works Division will also monitor roadways for any needed road closures. They are encouraging residents who live in low-level areas who have experienced flooding in the past to temporarily park their vehicles on higher ground.

The city has made sand and sand bags available free of charge at the corner of Railroad Ave SE and SE King St in downtown Snoqualmie. Shovels are not provided.

The ‘fun’ continues Tuesday morning when another front moves through that will trigger high, possibly damaging winds. Weather forecasters says winds gusts of 60MPH are possible – and with the ground saturation from recent rains, trees are more prone to topple and cause power outages.

The High Wind warning from 8AM Tuesday, November 17th until 6PM, with the highest winds predicted between mid-morning and mid-afternoon.

Now off to check the battery and candle supply and find the flashlights – just in case.