More wind and rain on the way for Whatcom — when might it all end
More wind and rain is headed toward Whatcom County, part of a series of storms that have blown in from the south over the past several days — boosting Mount Baker’s snowpack and filling creeks, streams and the Nooksack River to near flood stage.
A high wind watch was issued for 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 5, for parts of Western Washington, including Whatcom County.
“There’s still more to come,” said meteorologist Jeff Michalski at the National Weather Service in Seattle.
“We’ll still get some gusty southeast winds into Tuesday,” Michalski told The Bellingham Herald. “We’ll look for another round of possibly impactful weather. This pattern is still pretty active.”
Winds Tuesday were expected from the south-southeast at 30 to 40 mph and gusting to 50 and 60 mph, which could mean widespread power outages, the weather advisory said.
That’s on par with the wind gusts that howled to 49 mph Saturday in Bellingham and 62 mph in Ferndale.
Mt. Baker Ski Area recorded more than 3 feet of snow over a 48-hour period from Saturday to Monday, Jan. 4.
Those two days of storms also dropped almost three-quarters of an inch of rain in Bellingham and almost 2 inches of rain near Deming over the weekend, according to records from the National Weather Service and the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow network of citizen scientists.
But no major damage or widespread power outages were reported over the weekend.
More rain is forecast for Wednesday, decreasing to showers Wednesday night and leading to mostly sunny skies on Thursday, which could be the first day without rain in more than a week.
Landslides remain a possibility because of saturated soil, the National Weather Service said.
Meanwhile, the Nooksack River peaked Sunday just above “action stage” of 15 feet Sunday, according to the Northwest River Forecast Center.
In addition, Michalski said the threat of coastal flooding from seasonal “king tides” had eased Monday.
In the North Cascades, avalanche danger remains high in the Mount Baker wilderness, according to the Northwest Avalanche Center.
And the Mt. Baker Ski Area warned winter sports enthusiasts on its website to keep their partners in sight and be wary of tree wells.
“Saturday was so gnarly — very high winds, total blizzard with no visibility at the middle and upper elevations of the ski area and rain at the lower elevations. Temperatures dropped in the early evening, and it snowed the hardest I’ve seen it snow in a long time,” said Amy Trowbridge, marketing director.
On New Year’s Day, Mt. Baker had 277 inches of snow for the season, the largest snowfall of any U.S ski area, she said.
“Yes this is a lot of snow!” Trowbridge told The Herald in an email.
This story was originally published January 4, 2021 at 12:03 PM.
