Michael and Jaspenelle

Flooding

Spokane’s normal high for us this time of year between 65F and 70F but for the past few days we have been in the high 80s. Most of our water comes from snow melt and this winter we had the second highest snowfall on record, which to a certain extent is a good thing since we have had a few years of low snowfalls. However the 80F weather is making the snow melt very fast and we have seen some pretty wide spread flooding.

On Saturday Michael and I went to a few parks along the Spokane River, which is quite near flood stage. I am use to the water level on most of the dams being higher on one side then the other but most are pretty much just letting all the water through at this point.

This picture is taken across the river from Boulder Beach, a summer swimming hole. Not that you can see the swimming hole at the moment as it is currently covered in quite a bit of water. (This is what the same area looked like in March a couple years ago, that is Michael up on one of the boulders.) I believe the trail to the beach is also covered, though we didn’t cross to that side of the river. People forget how dangerous the water is when it is this high, it flows very fast and is very cold, a few people had to be rescued from the river this weekend.

Since Michael and I live up on Spokane’s South Hill, we are in no danger of being affected by the flooding but I hope all my friends over in North Idaho (where the worst flooding has been so far) will be okay. It is suppose to cool way down tomorrow but they are forecasting a lot of rain so I am not sure how much of a difference it will make as far as the flooding goes.