SEATTLE — Sunday brought a brief respite from the downpours of the past few days in King County, but expect to pull out those rain boots later in the week.
Periods of moderate to heavy rainfall are expected to resume across Western Washington on Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. Meanwhile, temperatures will trend up as the workweek starts, with some areas hitting records as a warm front moves north from California to Canada.
Seattle hit a record high of 60 degrees Sunday afternoon, and warmer-than-average temperatures are expected to continue into Monday, said Dana Felton, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Swelling with rainwater, the Snoqualmie River threatened to flood Sunday morning, triggering the King County Flood Warning Center to open for a few hours. But an afternoon break in the rain caused the river to recede and the center closed up shop.
Snow melt from the warmer temperatures may further contribute to river flooding in the coming days, the weather service said. And as heavy rain saturates soil and snow, the threat for landslides and avalanches increases.
“With any sort of sharp hillside, the threat of landslide is there,” Felton said.
The Northwest Avalanche Center reported avalanche danger in the Cascade and Olympic mountains on Sunday. “Very dangerous” conditions were present on both sides of the North Cascades, with a warning effect on the eastern slopes.
People should stay away from all avalanche terrain and “avoid travel below big, steep slopes, cornices, cliffs, and rocky terrain covered in snow,” the avalanche center warned.
About an inch of rain was recorded across Seattle between Saturday and Sunday morning. A volunteer in the Ballard neighborhood measured the highest level of precipitation in the city during that time, according to the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network, at 1.32 inches.
The highest measurement in the state was at Lake Quinault: 4.61 inches.
King County offers free access to KC Flood Alerts, an automated system with customized flood alerts on the county’s major river systems. Employees at the Flood Warning Center can be reached at 206-296-8200 or 1-800-945-9263 to provide the latest information on flood conditions. Real-time river level information is available online at kingcounty.gov/flood.
