Washblog

In light of some of the serious flooding, evacuations, road closures, highway closures hitting so many areas of Western Washington regions, by comparison, we seem to have fared a little better in our region.  In respect for the thousands who are struggling with having been evacuated and flooded out, I don't want to appear to be complaining, when we are dry, have water, food, heat and are basically okay.  A couple inches of water in the basement dungeon, but nothing too serious.  

However, it does seem a good time to bring up that lack of Doppler Radar weather coverage for our region once again.  I am prompted to call it to attention again, because it was called to attention on KING 5 reporting last night.  The weather person showed the Doppler radar readings for Western Washington showing rain everywhere, except that one little pie slice of an area that was dark and black.  No, it wasn't because it was dry and there was no raining or flooding.  As she was reporting on the rains and floods throughout the region, she said it was too bad the Doppler radar at Camano couldn't read the coast region that was black - that pie slice you can see on the radar that is dark.

Yep, it's still a dark spot on the Doppler Radar reading for Western Washington.  This region, SW Washington, the orphaned step-child, where the weather is as volatile if not more so than the rest of the Washington coastline is not on the radar map readings.  This region, where so many depend on the condition of the weather, the condition of the Pacific ocean and the mouth of the Columbia River for their livelihood and lives is not relevant enough to NOAA to be worthy of being readable on Doppler Radar.

A bit of snarkiness - intentional, because the need for radar coverage in this region has been so well documented, more scientifically and well researched ( link - website of Cliff Mass, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington ), than I provide in these brief WB stories and has been called to NOAA's attention via respectfully appropriate channels.  

Last year, after the wind and flood damage reached catastrophic proportions here in SW Washington, the Governor declared it disaster area,and FEMA was brought into the area to help with clean up. You may well remember the impact on Lewis County and I-5 closure.  

Senator Cantwell held a town hall type local summit meeting in Aberdeen, calling together many of the local industries, county sheriff offices, emergency management systems, county commissioners and representatives from NOAA, along with aids from several WA Congressmen to discuss the feasibility of obtaining another Doppler Radar to be located in area in Washington state that would permit reading the Southwest region.  The town of Westport has been favored by many as a likely location.  

The issue remains funding, and the NOAA response last year to the Cantwell meeting was to disagree with the need for Doppler radar to read this region; that alternative methods of reading this region were sufficient, and that it didn't merit the funding required to locate another Doppler radar in Washington state.  

Well, having a Doppler radar to read our weather won't prevent hurricane-strength windstorms with entire counties of tree blowdown, rainstorms, flooding sufficient to close I-5 - the only North/South interstate highway serving Western Washington, and mudslides (where entire hills fall into the roads).  But it might help those of us subject to the volatile weather of this Pacific Northwest to be better prepared to help one another.  This is the second year that the 'weather' crisis has reached statewide levels of concern and attention, so this has stopped being a local matter and become a statewide issue.  

 The local people here who are hardy and endure the onslaughts of what the weather brings won't complain too much.  And I'm not complaining, because we have much to be thankful compared to what so many people have endured and are enduring with these 'record breaking' weather conditions.  Did I mention we have two daughters and their families living in Spokane - with it's 'record breaking' amount of snow - 61 inches of snow?  

Truly, I'm not complaining, my families -- all of them - Portland, Renton, Tacoma, Puyallup, Spokane, Elma, we in Bay Center are blessedly safe while so many other families are facing near catastrophic circumstances.  Even my son-in-law in Iraq is safe for now, so we do have much in our family of families for which to be thankful.  And we have experienced and seen the unselfish, giving and kind acts of neighbors helping neighbors.

There are perhaps four points to writing this story -- an inquiry about that missing Doppler Radar, the hmmmmm on the issue of and state of climate warming, the sense of community as people reach out to help and assist others in need, and to acknowledge the improvements made within my immediate county in responding to weather emergencies.  

This last acknowledgement to Pacific County Emergency Management efforts, I feel a need to make  because last year I posted at Washblog my concerns at what seemed to me to be infrastructure collapse in Pacific County.  Turns out that was not entirely the case, but there was indeed a collapse in county communication internally and externally.  I feel confident that Pacific County is doing all that it can to cope with weather calamities within their resources...more than that and we would need state and federal level resources, ie, adequate Doppler Radar coverage to read our weather so we can be better prepared to deal with the reality of our weather related storms.