I’m a desert rat. I grew up in a state where the annual rainfall is is less than half a foot (at least in the areas where I lived), so when we get close to four inches of rain in a single day in the Pacific Northwest, I still find it amazing. We had around five inches today.
I don’t really buy into all the media hype (every storm is the “storm of the century”), but it was a pretty impressive pair of little old run-down tropical storms that just blew through here. Some places along the coast got gusts of 129 mph and the 750+ year old sitka spruce blew over. I-5 is closed from Chehalis to Olympia and is expected to remain closed for up to 36 hours while they wait for the Chehalis River to recede.
I took my lunch in my pickup and watched it rain. The rain came in waves, and if you looked at it just right, you could almost see forms moving in the waves of rain, like giant living creatures (Ents come to mind) striding forcefully – and swiftly – northeastward. The ponds along the business corridor where I work overflowed into the grass. And it was warm: lovely warm air brought in by the tropical breezes pushing the storm onward. So much for a great opening weekend of skiing at Ski Bowl on Mt. Hood: all that lovely snow accumulation is now feeding the rising waters of the rivers in the valley.
There’s a song that comes to mind, an old Creedence Clearwater Revival tune: Who’ll Stop the Rain?
And I wonder…
