Five, six, seven inches of rain fall in June

Up to 7 inches of rain have drenched the Inland Northwest this month, setting records at numerous locations in the region. An inch or more of rain fell in areas to the north of Spokane and Coeur d’Alene on Tuesday, adding to the already copious amounts of rain in Stevens, Pend Oreille, Bonner, Shoshone and Boundary counties. The Kootenai River at Bonners Ferry apparently crested earlier today at just over 2 feet above minor flood stage. Sandbagging of a city levee in front of Kootenai River Inn was undertaken today while the City Council on Tuesday issued a disaster declaration. The National Weather Service office in Spokane posted rainfall totals today on its web site. Boundary Dam northwest of Metaline Falls leads the pack with 7.44 inches of rain, a record for June there. Other June records are Sandpoint at 6.6 inches, Prichard at 6.36 inches, Northport at 6.11 inches, Newport at 6.04 inches, Colville at 5.86 inches, Bayview at 5.47 inches and Bonners Ferry at 4.39 inches. Those totals are roughly double Spokane’s accumulation of 2.86 inches this month in what has been a very wet June for the Lilac City. Coeur d’Alene is right behind the pack with its second-wettest June and an accumulation of 4.95 inches so far. It is among a number of locations with the second- or third-highest rain accumulations for June. A series of Pacific low-pressure areas have drawn moisture from southerly latitudes into an air flow pattern that essentially squeezed the moisture out of the humid air. The pattern set up repeatedly from about Spokane and Coeur d’Alene northward, but also affected other parts of the Inland Northwest throughout the month. On Tuesday, Lewiston had 0.61 inches of rain, while Pomeroy had 0.81 inches. Grand Coulee to the west of Spokane saw 1.23 inches. Spokane airport had 0.65 inches of rain on Tuesday, which was just shy of a daily record of 0.67 inches.