Weather forecasts are warning of very heavy rain, high temps, rapidly melting snow, high winds and rapidly rising lake and river levels for tonight and tomorrow for the Lake Wenatchee area. The current warning states:
HEAVY RAIN IS FORECAST OVER WESTERN CHELAN COUNTY FROM LEAVENWORTH TO PLAIN EXTENDING WEST TO THE CASCADE CREST. HEAVY RAIN AND SNOW MELT MAY TRIGGER DEBRIS FLOWS OFF THE STEEP TERRAIN OF WESTERN CHELAN COUNTY. THIS INCLUDES THE ICICLE CREEK AREA. IN ADDITION RAPID RISES ON SMALL CREEKS AND STREAMS WILL BE POSSIBLE. NO FLOODING IS EXPECTED TO OCCUR ON THE LARGER RIVERS LIKE THE STEHEKIN RIVER OR THE WENATCHEE RIVER.* SOME UNCERTAINTY STILL EXISTS AS TO HOW MUCH RAIN WILL IMPACT AREAS OF CHELAN COUNTY AWAY FROM THE CASCADE CREST. FOUR TO SIX INCHES OF RAIN IS FORECAST ALONG THE CREST. EAST OF THE CREST…THE PLAIN AND LEAVENWORTH AREAS COULD RECEIVE BETWEEN 1 AND 3 INCHES OF RAIN.
This will result in a sudden and significant rise in the lake and river levels. Forecasts currently show a rise in excess of 5 feet by tomorrow. See river level forecasts at these two sites:
http://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/river/station/flowplot/flowplot.cgi?PESW1
http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=otx&gage=pesw1&view=1,1,1,1,1,1
See the current forecasts at these two sites:
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
7:00 AM Wednesday Feb 22nd: Despite the forecast of a dramatic rise in the lake level it has only gone up about 4 inches since this time yesterday. I think the dryness of the 70 plus inches of snow we got in mid-January has allowed the snow on the ground to absorb a lot of the moisture. It began raining early yesterday morning and still is. Rain gauges around the lake seem to vary a lot but I think we got about 2 inches of rain. The heavy winds that were forecast never showed up here- a little breezy y’day but nothing significant.
Will post updates here if there is any significant change. The river forecast still show a surge in lake levels but who knows………….
8:00 Thursday Feb 23rd
I guess it was a lot of concern over nothing. None of the forecast high winds, heavy runoff, rising water levels etc really happened. The lake is up another 4 inches but that’s only a total of 8 inches from the whole storm. George
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