A Gift from the Snow Moon

The photo above is the Full Snow Moon (in Leo) taken at 6:30AM on Feb 8 from Burien WA looking west over the Olympic Mountains. The moon was totally full that evening at 11:33 p.m. PST. With it came the first sunny weather in weeks. The rains actually fell in 45 of the last 52 days. January was especially wet, with measurable precipitation occurring on 28 of 31 days—tying the all-time mark for number of rainy days in January (set in 2006 and 1953).

The rains caused mud slides, flooded basements, washed-out roads, downed power lines and trees, and leaking roofs. The Puget Sound region and points beyond were particularly hard hit. Carnation had almost become an island, with only one access road. Amtrak schedules were impacted by landslides on the tracks. Cars in the Mt. Rainier region were marooned there a few times and then had to be escorted out one at a time due to whole lanes that had slid down the mountain. Hundreds of residents in Issaquah had to evacuate their homes last week.

As of February 8, almost every river in King County was in some phase of flooding –The Green River phase 3, Cedar River at phase 4 (major flooding), the White River at phase 2 (minor flooding), and Tolt and Snoqualmie Rivers at phase 1. There were also many roads closed and people evacuated from their homes in Pierce County. The Orting — South Prairie area was especially affected and a section of SR-162 between them was closed.

On Sunday morning (Feb 9) we awoke to a beautiful sunny day. The sun actually looked brighter than normal to me — due to its prolonged absence, I guess. The rain had actually stopped and Chuck and I headed south towards Orting and the Foothills Trail. We saw many fields under water in the Kent Valley due to flooding of the Green River. Unfortunately I was unable to get my driver to stop along SR-167 so I could take photos. The photos in the gallery below were all taken on or around the Foothills Trail. The February Snow Moon gets its name for the fact that February is the snowiest month of the year — but in 2020 she brought FULL SUN!