We're dry

Just a quick update on the weather.

We seem to have escaped the flooding in our neighborhood, though I was getting very concerned yesterday. Down river from us, close to Puyallup and Fife, they said the Puyallup River was 6 inches from going over the top of the levees. We have a lot of friends living in those areas, and some, I think , were evacuated, but I haven't heard officially.

The USGS site today listed the previous record for January 8 for the flow rate on the Puyallup River at Alderton (just a mile from Sumner and 2 miles from my house) at 8550 cubic feet per second. The actual rate today: 53200 cfs. 6.5 times the previous record. That's a lot of water. It's the biggest recorded since 1917. I guess that is the hundred year flood.

Anyway, the rain is slowing down, and the freezing level has come down the mountain from 9500 feet to 2000 feet, so the snow melt has stopped. The river has crested, and the worst seems to be over.

Of course, the Sounder (the commuter rail system) wasn't running this morning so I drove in. Not too bad considering everything going on. We'll see how the trip home goes this afternoon.