With flooding and flood warnings across the state, the rain keeps coming, and there’s snow in them thar hills.
Hoodoo is opening for the first time in three years.
“The main story is tonight, tomorrow looks largely dry,” said Meteorologist Colby Neuman with the National Weather Service in Portland, on Monday. The valleys might see low clouds and fog.
“Starting Wednesday, especially in the afternoon, it’s looking like another round of rain that’s going to move in.”
Rainfall totals could go up, but snow levels also will probably go up, he said, moving from around 1,500 feet to 5,000 or 6,000 feet with the surge of moderate rain.
How much depends on how long it lasts before shifting to the southeast by the weekend, leaving light showers possibly Friday and Saturday.
That will be followed by another storm system, Neuman said.
Portland has recorded the “wettest start to December we’ve ever had,” he said.
He noted that last December wasn’t dry either. Oregon had plenty of rainfall until it experienced the driest spring and hottest summer on record, with almost no snowpack.
Last winter had many dry spells, with big storms spaced two to four weeks apart.
“We can actually have these events like we’re having right now,” Neuman said, but it won’t be until spring that differences will be noticeable compared to last year.
Over the next few days, flooding could still be an issue, Neuman said. It will be most noticeable on rivers that do not have reservoirs and rivers in the coast range.
From Monday last week to Monday this week, Sweet Home had 5.11 inches of precipitation at Foster Dam. Total so far this year as of Monday, Sweet Home has had 33.2 inches of rain.
As of Nov. 11, Sweet Home had just 19.78 inches of rain. From Nov. 11 to Dec. 14, Sweet Home received 13.42 inches of rain. With the dry year, that’s 40.4 percent of all rainfall for 2015.
Monday, the Foster Lake pool was at 618.2 feet above sea level, and Green Peter was at 956.52 feet. Green Peter was receiving 5,342 cubic feet per second and releasing 6,080 cfs. Foster was releasing 11,500 cfs and receiving 10,601 cfs.