One Wet Lamb

March rain totals break records at stations across county.

If March went out like a lamb, it was a the most water-logged lamb ever seen in Whitman County.

Monthly rainfall totals were shattered at monitoring stations in Colfax, Pullman, Rosalia and Tekoa as a month of steady precipitation soaked the county.

David Jones at the Natural Resource Conservation Service station atop hospital hill in Colfax recorded 5.05 inches of rain for the month. That was almost a full inch more than the previous record of 4.1 inches set in 1983.

Records have been kept for the area at different locations since 1942, according to Jones with the NRCS.

Rosalia, where National Weather Service records date back to 1893, set a record with 4.98 inches to top the 4.28 inches measured in 1989.

The National Weather Service reported the 5.08 inches at the Pullman-Moscow Airport broke the 3.91 record set in 2009. Tekoa’s station caught 5.4 inches to crush the 1950 mark of 4.09.

LaCrosse almost washed down to Hooper Friday when a single-day record three-quarters of an inch fell between 5:50 p.m. Thursday and 5:50 p.m. Friday.

“It’s a good thing we don’t have a stream in town,” said Nancy Taylor, who keeps watch over LaCrosse weather for the Gazette and for the weather service.

Friday’s gully-washer was more than two-thirds the average March total of 1.12 inches and brought the LaCrosse total for March 2012 to 3.3 inches. Previous high on Taylor’s books was 3.1 inches in 2009.

The deluge that fell over most of the county Friday added .97 inches of precipitation to the NRCS gauge in Colfax to swell its total from 3.98 to 4.95. Another one-tenth of an inch fell Saturday.

Local flooding was reported in several areas in eastern Whitman County, as runoff from snow melting in the Idaho mountains swelled streams and drainage ditches.

The North Palouse River crested at 17.74 feet at 6:30 a.m. Saturday, well above the 17-foot stage classified by the weather service as a major flood.

Golf Course Road near Tekoa was closed over the weekend with standing water over the roadway.

Black Road at Belmont was also under water when Kelley Creek jumped its banks.

“The stream just decided to find a new place. And it chose our road,” said Mark Storey, county public works director.

Mike Milano of Palouse reported the annual spring flood of Hayton Green Park was in full force as water swamped playground equipment, created beachheads of playground bark and moved benches off their mounts.