After the wettest late spring season in nearly 80 years, the Portland area is feeling the effect of record-breaking precipitation.
Incessant rain over the weekend and melting snowpack in the north surged the Columbia River water level from its normal 12 feet bank to about 16 feet, causing the local National Weather Service office to issue a flood warning this week for parks and trails in Clark and Multnomah counties. The warning is in effect until Wednesday.
From Sauvie Island to Government Island, and Vancouver Lake to the Sandy River Delta, local parks are dealing with abnormal water levels inching up onto the land.
Portland Parks & Recreation announced Sunday it would temporarily close the Eastbank Esplanade and its popular trail path from north of the Morrison Bridge to south of the Steel Bridge because of flooding.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed the Willamette River also reached 16 feet Monday morning, 6 inches above the threshold for closing access to the floating portion of the Esplanade.
Back-up from the Columbia pushing water into the Willamette has lifted the floating path, making it unsafe to cross the angled transitions, Portland Parks & Recreation said in a news release.
Rising water covered the Waterfront Renaissance Trail in Vancouver on Sunday, blocking part of the path, as the Columbia River creeps toward the last time Vancouver saw a historic high water level of 16.8 feet in 1997.
The good news, said National Weather Service hydrologist Andy Bryant, is the rainfall provided a “great” regional water supply and could delay concerns about fire season.
The bad news is the many inches of rain and lack of sunshine could be detrimental to summer agriculture in Oregon and southwest Washington.
Vineyards in the Willamette Valley were already suffering from a couple nights of freezing temperatures in April. Now other crops in home gardens and small farms — like tomatoes, peppers and squash — may struggle to grow in the truncated dry season.
Precipitation is expected to wane this week as the atmospheric river of subtropical moisture, which brought nearly 2 inches of rain to some areas in the Portland area, finally drops off.
Thunderstorms are forecast for Thursday and Friday but “won’t be anywhere near the big slug of water we saw over the weekend,” Bryant said.
In other good news, the city’s Bureau of Environmental Services said the weekend’s storm didn’t cause any issues to local water quality because of the “Big Pipe” — a two decade-long project that significantly reduced sewer overflows to the Willamette River and Columbia Slough. The Johnson Creek Watershed, another historic problem area for flooding, also held strong without any issues.
–Savannah Eadens; seadens@oregonian.com; 503-221-6651; @savannaheadens
