Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Weather forecasters say a strong wet front will stall over Southwest Washington through this evening, likely driving rivers such as the Chehalis River at Doty and the Newaukum River near Chehalis above flood stage.

Accumulations of rain from the weekend already has increased the risk of landslides in Western Washington and expected additional snow in the Cascades will present hazards on higher mountain roads, according to the National Weather Service.

Lewis County Deputy Director of the Department of Emergency Management Sgt. Ross McDowell says local weather watchers in Pe Ell reported a weekend total of 5.5 inches. Chehalis is reporting 3 inches, McDowell noted.

Two to five inches of additional rain is expected, the weather service indicated this morning.

Official caution that excessive run off will cause ponding of water in urban areas, highways and in poor drainage areas.

The snow level will be around 4,000 feet today, rising to 5,000 feet tonight.

The weather service recommends folks be alert for rapid changes by listening to their weather radios or monitoring local news media.

Links to river levels and other weather warnings can always be found on the right hand sidebar of Lewis County Sirens.com

Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter

This entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2012 at 10:06 am and is filed under News briefs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.