Talkin' Lake Coeur d'Alene, and area flooding

The moisture just keeps piling up here in the Inland Northwest. Since the beginning of October 2016, Cliff has measured 31.75 inches of rain and melted snow through early Sunday. This is another all-time record for Coeur d’Alene. We have so much water that many are describing the recent flooding as some of the worst in the area’s history.

Moisture totals for the young 2017 season, January through March, were at 16.11 inches through early Sunday for the 3-month span, and we still have much of this week to add to that total. By the way, that is also a record for the first quarter of the year. The previous record was in 1974 with 13.62 inches. Our biggest year for moisture was in 2012 as 43.27 inches was reported.

Despite March being a wet month, Cliff and I don’t see another record-breaker for monthly precipitation. As of early Sunday, Coeur d’Alene has received 5.27 inches of moisture. The normal is 1.94 inches with the wettest March occurring back in 2012 with 7.51 inches.

Lake Coeur d’Alene’s levels peaked on March 21 with a level of 2,134.86 feet, which lists this in the minor flooding category. For moderate flooding, the lake level would have needed to rise to 2,136 feet. Although, water levels stayed below moderate and major stages of flooding for Lake Coeur d’Alene, a number of areas near the lake and rivers were flooded, including the parking lot near The Coeur d’Alene Resort.

For only the third time in many decades, the Cedars Floating Restaurant had to be closed due to the high waters. A tugboat had to be used to keep the restaurant from floating away. The last time this occurred was in 2008. In 1996, the restaurant also had to be temporarily shut down.

About a week ago, the Spokane River was at its highest level since 1997. According to Avista, the Post Falls Dam was “wide open.” At the height of the flooding, Lake Coeur d’Alene was receiving about 70,000 cubic feet of water per second, while just 35,000 cubic feet was flowing out of the lake.

My good friend, Bryan, took me out to the Post Falls Dam on March 18. It was an amazing sight to see all of that water moving through the dam. I took a video of the raging water and posted it on the Coeur d’Alene Press and my Facebook pages. As of late last week, there were over 15,000 views.

By the way, since we’re talking about Lake Coeur d’Alene, many NIC students have asked me if this lake was created from an ice age. Well, Lake Coeur d’Alene is one of many of our natural lakes in North Idaho. Scientists believe that our lake was formed due to the melting of the glacial ice from the last ice age. The event is called the Missoula Floods and occurred about 12,000 to 15,000 years ago. The floods occurred as an ice sheet from Canada carved out Lake Pend Oreille and dammed the Clark Fork River. The water built up to form Glacial Lake Missoula and then eventually broke through the ice dam that resulted in the massive flooding and the formation of Lake Coeur d’Alene.

SPRING OFFICIALLY arrived a week ago, and there were a few days last week with milder than normal temperatures along with some much-appreciated sunshine. Although, it’s nice to know that we won’t have an issue with drought in the immediate future, many of us have literally “had enough” of the wet and cool weather. However, we still see more rain across the Inland Northwest through the early to mid portion of April. There’s also the possibility of isolated thunderstorms as the warmer air from the south collides with the cooler air from the north.

As sea-surface temperatures continue to warm in the south-central Pacific Ocean, our weather pattern should eventually turn drier and warmer. The last part of April and early May is forecast to have less moisture and warm afternoon temperatures. By that time, we should have temperatures climbing well into the 60s, perhaps to near 70 degrees.

But, moisture totals are expected to increase again by the middle of May and continue into early June. This weather pattern would also favor increased thunderstorm activity. The summer of 2016 is still looking hotter and drier than normal.

Contact Randy Mann at randy@longrangeweather.com