HEAVY RAINFALL HIT the lowlands, flooding some homes in Sequim and pushing 7 million gallons of diluted sewage into the Port Angeles Harbor, while winter weather roared back in the Olympic Mountains with a one-day snowfall of 19 inches at Hurricane Ridge.
Although the entire North Olympic Peninsula was drenched Sunday, the heaviest part of the storm was in Port Angeles and Sequim, said Jay Albrecht, forecaster with the National Weather Service in Seattle, on Monday.
A reversal of the typical weather pattern, which brought the rain from the northeast, resulted in the Port Angeles and Sequim areas receiving upslope rain, while Forks was in the mountain rainshadow of the unusual storm and East Jefferson County was outside the greatest area of intensity, Albrecht said.
Sunday’s storm brought 2.65 inches of rain to Port Angeles, according to the National Weather Service weather station at the William R. Fairchild International Airport.
A relatively meager 1.44 inches fell at the Quillayute State Airport near Forks.
In Sequim, floods hit residences as firefighters responded to seven water-related incidents.
In four of those cases, Clallam County Fire District 2 and Sequim Public Works crews assisted with sandbags and helped to pump out flooded homes, Fire Chief Steve Vogel said.
Seven apartments at SeaBreeze Apartments on McCurdy Road were flooded, and sandbags were placed to divert the flooding away from the building, Vogel said.
An home on McCurdy Road also was flooded, he said.
Basements for houses on Horizon View Drive and West Happy View Lane were flooded when ditches overflowed and temporarily rerouted water into homes, he said.
“A culvert failed and diverted 70,000 gallons of water into a basement on Horizon View,” Vogel said.
Public works diverted the ditch water and began to pump out the basement, he said.
Port Angeles’ rainfall total on Sunday was the highest in the state on that day.
It was the fifth highest rainfall amount to fall for any date in Port Angeles since records began in 1933, Albrecht said.
The highest rainfall amount for all Port Angeles sites was 3.64 inches on June 18, 1986, he said.
Since the end of 1998, when the Fairchild rainfall records begin, the record for a March 24-hour rainfall period was 1.47 inches in 2002.
Only five entire March months in those years of records had more rain than fell on Sunday alone in Port Angeles, according to Weather Service data.
In the mountains above Port Angeles, Hurricane Ridge gained 19 inches of snow in 12 hours.
When the snow began to fall at about 6 a.m. Sunday the Northwest Avalanche Center snow sensor on Hurricane Ridge showed 6 inches of snow.
By 6 p.m., it registered 25 inches of snow.
The Snotel site near Hurricane Ridge also recorded 19 inches of snow, which brought the snowpack at the site up to 11 percent of average.
Last week, the percentage was 8 percent.
After the storm the snowpack for the entire Olympic Mountains — as measured at four sites in Clallam and Jefferson counties — reached 13 percent of normal.
More rain and snow is forecast, including a weak weather system expected to arrive tonight and additional showers on Friday and Saturday.
But there isn’t enough left of the winter weather season to create five more storms like Tuesday’s — the number of additional storms that would be needed to bring the snowpack to near normal and prevent likely summer water shortages in the rivers, Albrecht said.
As of last week the mountain range was listed as being in moderate drought by the U.S. Drought Monitor, due to the lack of snow.
On Friday, Gov. Jay Inslee declared a drought emergency for three regions in Washington state, including the Olympic Peninsula.
Many Port Angeles streets flooded, including several intersections on A Street, at the intersection of Eighth and Chase streets and at First and Washington streets.
Cars splashed through water a foot or deeper as stormwater drains were unable to keep up with the deluge.
However, there were no incidents relating to the flooding, said Port Angeles Police Deputy Chief Brian Smith.
The Waterfront Trail from City Pier to the east had several mudslides, said Ron Goldhammer of the Peninsula Trails Association.
“It’s open but expect to walk through a little bit of mud and water,” Goldhammer said.
One slide is between City Pier and Francis Street and multiple slides are two to three miles to the east of City Pier, he said.
Jefferson County also received impressive rainfall amounts, but it wasn’t as heavy as in the central part of the Peninsula, Albrecht said.
The Quilcene weather station — the only official Weather Service station in Jefferson County — measured 1.8 inches of rain.
While Port Townsend had heavy rain, there was no flooding reported in the area, and no notable weather-related problems, said Bill Beasley, spokesman for East Jefferson Fire Rescue.
No flooding was reported in the Brinnon area where rivers had carried high water into homes in February and December, said Bob Hamlin, director of the Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management.
A Snotel station in the mountains above the Quilcene area at Mount Crag received no snow. West of there, the Buckinghorse site had 6 inches of snow, raising the snowpack to 15 inches there.
Sunday’s soaking rainstorm broke records across Western Washington.
“Some of the records were doubled,” Albrecht said.
A 1.2 inch rainfall record set in 1974 at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was smashed with 2.2 inches on Sunday.
In Olympia a record set in 1997 was broken with 2.08 inches of rain, and Bellingham broke a record set in 1974 with 1.14 inches.
Sunday was the third wettest March day in Seattle history, according to the weather service.
The current March record for rainiest days are tied at 2.57 inches of rain on March 5 in 1972 and March 10 in 1903.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
