Records are falling like rain
Soggiest March ever isn’t over yet; wet weather raising flood worries
Steady rain on Thursday afternoon brought enough precipitation for Spokane to set a record for the soggiest March since record keeping began in 1881.
Spokane received 0.30 inches of rain through 5 p.m. at Spokane International Airport, pushing the monthly total to 3.89 inches, which surpassed the previous record of 3.81 inches in 1995.
It was still raining going into the evening.
Bonners Ferry broke its 1950 record for March precipitation with 4.62 inches as of Wednesday.
Several other cities in the Inland Northwest were close to setting records for March precipitation as of today.
A series of storms through Saturday is going to push the records even higher.
“It’s unusual. It’s remarkable,” said John Livingston, meteorologist in charge of the Spokane bureau of the National Weather Service. “More significantly, it’s going to cause problems.”
All of the water has raised flooding concerns in the Inland Northwest.
The National Weather Service issued a flood advisory on Thursday to last through Sunday afternoon for smaller creeks and rivers.
The flooding may also involve pooling water in low-lying areas and the chance of landslides.
Moderate flooding is expected on the Palouse River at Potlatch today and minor flooding on the Coeur d’Alene River at Cataldo on Sunday.
The weather service is also keeping an eye out for flooding on the South Fork of the Palouse River at Pullman and the St. Joe River at St. Maries.
Elsewhere through Wednesday, Lewiston had recorded 3.3 inches of precipitation; Colville, 3.01 inches; Kellogg, 6.43; Sandpoint, 6.1 inches; and Pullman, 3.85 inches, all this month.
Those amounts are close to monthly records.
Forecasters are calling for additional precipitation from Thursday through Saturday of 1.3 inches in Spokane to nearly 2 inches in the Silver Valley of North Idaho.