I was just looking forward to taking a break from weather blogging when THIS has to happen:

That’s a landslide on West Burnside, a couple miles west of Downtown Portland. The airport has seen nearly 2” of rainfall in the past 48 hours, on top of a very wet February / early March. So the water-logged soil is prone to landslides.

Also…the rising snow levels and rapidly melting snow in the Cascades, valleys in the Gorge, the High Desert, Blue Mountains and Eastern Washington/Idaho? All of this is contributing to minor flooding on both the Willamette and Columbia Rivers. It’s a little unusual to see “floody weather” in mid-March, especially on the Willamette. But the Columbia River rises every spring due to Cascade, Intermountain and Rocky Mountain snowmelt. One positive consequence of the dams that were built on the river throughout the 20th century, is that riverside communities (like the ill-fated Vanport) don’t have to endure quite the same kind of annual flooding risk they once did.

Here is yesterday’s forecast for the Columbia River levels:

Make the usual appropriate plans if you live right near the water, etc….

That’s it for now. The first half of “Saint Patrick’s Equinox Weekend” is going to be pretty soggy across the region. This includes all the 3/17 parties on Friday night, as well as most of the day Saturday. But it should be completely dry and mild for most of Sunday and Monday, which is good news for anyone with equinoctal festivities.