As storms line up for Whatcom County, forecasters wary of an atmospheric river
A series of wet and blustery storms that are expected to sweep across Northwest Washington through the weekend could dump enough rain to boost October totals in Bellingham closer to normal.
Water could clog storm drains and pool on roadways in Bellingham and lowland Whatcom County, and a few power outages are possible because the trees still have many of their leaves.
But no flooding is expected on the Nooksack River, even if an atmospheric river situation develops later this week, said meteorologist Jacob DeFlitch at the National Weather Service in Seattle.
“It’s something to watch, for sure,” DeFlitch told The Bellingham Herald.
Showers are forecast for Wednesday, Oct. 26, and more wind and rain is expected Thursday, Oct. 27.
But meteorologists are keeping an eye on a pair of storm systems likely to arrive Friday or Saturday, Oct. 28 or 29, DeFlitch said.
Some forecast models show those systems merging into an atmospheric river, the kind of storm that can bring heavy rain. Similar storms caused flooding on the Nooksack in 2020 and 2021.
Heaviest rain could swing south of Whatcom County toward the Olympic Peninsula, however, DeFlitch said.
”We’ll have to see if that shifts south. If we get a sequence of storms, the rivers will start to rise” but not to the point where flooding would be a concern, he said.
Storms through Halloween could add 2 inches to October rainfall totals in Bellingham, which averages 3.85 inches for the month.
Monthly rainfall stood at 0.93 inches on Tuesday, after 20 days without rain since Oct. 1, the official start of the rainy season.
