NASELLE – If someone could figure out a way to transport some of our western Washington late December rainfall to the Texas-Oklahoma area, residents of both of the regions would be grateful. Our West Coast weather has been just as wet as the Texas-Oklahoma area has been dry. Those two areas are just a pair of examples of the rather extreme weather that has been quite common all across the country as we head into the jaws of winter.

The western Washington weather, especially as observed in the Naselle area during December, has gone from one extreme to the other. Up until a little after mid-month, the December weather was uncharacteristically as fall-like as one could want. Dry days, with cool nights, were the norm. Visions of a dry, if not white, Christmas danced in our heads. Sorry folks, it wasn’t to be.

When it changed, it changed.

The “it” being the weather pattern which has brought a series of storms from deep in the Pacific to the West Coast, especially as measured in Naselle. All that one has to do to verify the change is to look at the weather charts as reported in the Chinook Observer on a weekly basis. During the Christmas week of Dec. 20 to Dec. 26, the Naselle Hatchery recorded 14.22 inches of rainfall during the seven day period. The wettest day saw 5.40 inches recorded in the 24 hours ending at 8 a.m. Dec. 24.

Conversely, the Long Beach weather station was only recording 2.78 inches during the same week, with only 0.18 of an inch recorded on the same day as Naselle’s wettest day for the year. During that week, Long Beach did not record over an inch of rain during any of the seven days.

Naselle, on the other hand, recorded over an inch of rain during five of the seven days, with the aforementioned high, plus another day when 2.40 inches fell. Keep in mind that these two extremes are being recorded at weather stations which are only about 15 miles apart as the crow flies, with the Long Beach station due west of the Naselle station.

The stormy blustery weather brought above-normal wind to our area. The Naselle wind readings are actually taken in Rosburg at Sotka’s Eden Valley Ranch, about eight miles southeast of the Naselle Hatchery where the rainfall is recorded. The Eden Valley wind reached a high of 33 mph on Dec. 24 with an average high of 23 mph for the seven days.

The Long Beach wind, as measured at the Super 8 Motel, where the rainfall is also recorded, reached a high of 37 mph on Dec. 25 and the high wind reading averaged 28.29 mph for the seven day period.

As this report was being compiled several days before the end of the year, the weather forecasters predicted that the largely uninterrupted wet windy pattern would continue well beyond the New Year. That wet stormy weather could be compounded by some of the highest tides of the year. A midday high tide of 9.9 feet was forecast for Dec. 29, 10.2 for Dec. 30, and 10.3 for Dec. 31, with 10-foot-plus tides continuing for three days beyond the New Year.

Those high tides, when coupled with all of the rain, will undoubtedly cause some local flooding in the coastal streams. And that, surprisingly, has not been much of a problem in most areas, yet, despite the steady rainfall.

One local area which has been feeling the effects of the high tides is the Rosburg area, especially at the one home still occupied on the Kandoll Road. That home is occupied by Raven Webb and her home remains inundated by water whenever there are any above normal high tides.

The possible reason for this condition is the breaching of the dikes by the Columbia Land Trust and Ducks Unlimited. The dikes controlling the Grays River in the Kandoll Road area are now breached and the water comes over the raised road and into Webb’s property.

Webb said, “Before they breached the dikes, we didn’t get much tide water on our land. Now, even an eight and a half-foot tide will send water under our house. These 10-foot tides put water into our house as they have already done several times. The water has ruined a freezer full of meat and other frozen foods, a refrigerator, and it soaked the floor of the apartment which we had just had redone with new floors and other remodeling.”

Webb continued, “The company that did the breaching of the dike built up the Kandoll Road, but the water, even from a smaller high tide, just pours over that road and floods our land, driveway, and house. Then the water is trapped on our land, like it is in a big bowl, with no way to get out except by soaking into the ground. Now, when the high tide comes in, it stays as the ground is saturated from the rain and the tide water which comes in each day.

“They were aware of the problem a year ago and did nothing as we flooded last year and now Susan Howard’s hay field has been under water since Wednesday. Her field is before my property and the water hits it first.”

Wahkiakum County Commissioner Mark Linquist said, “The outfit that did the engineering and work in the area is aware of the problem. It is obvious that something is wrong and that changes have to be made. The dike breaching which was done on Robbie Johnson’s property is working properly because they have diked off that land from the adjoining land. That is not happening with Raven Webb’s property.”