Ferndale woke up this morning, December 9th, to water over roadways, gusty winds, rain squalls and a power outage. Thank goodness the temperature is above freezing.
Marine Drive, Barrett Road and Paradise Road were all closed due to water over the road early this morning. In some places law enforcement kept drivers away from the water by parking with their flashing lights on while waiting for the Whatcom County to set up road closure signage.
Over 300 Puget Sound Energy customers found themselves without power for a short time this morning in the neighborhoods around Grandview Road east of I-5. The cause was not reported but about the same time two wind gusts over 50MPH were recorded by a Ferndale weather station. Those were the only two gusts this morning over 40 MPH as winds have otherwise remained calm.
Weather forecast for the remainder of the day holds no surprises like we have been used to. Expect intermittent rain, mild winds and temperatures between 42° and 51°.
While there has been only one-tenth of an inch of rainfall recorded today as of the time of this article, there were a couple small squalls that rolled through as if to warn of how much worse the weather could be. There has been about a half-inch of rainfall in the past 24 hours which has led to some surface water flooding on low lying roads.
The Nooksack River level is expected to crest late tonight at about 16.5 feet. UPDATED 10:30am – Forecast says the Nooksack River crested at 16 feet about midnight last night. This is well below the official flood stage of 19 feet but high enough when combined with recent local rains and saturated soil to cause road closures.