Flood — Kootenai, Idaho

2014-01-11 · near Athol, Kootenai, Idaho

Event narrative

A few homes in Athol were surrounded by standing water due to rain, snow melt and frozen soils. Homes that were affected by flood waters were located along Sienna Loop, East Seasons Road and on North Clagstone Road. Damage costs were estimated.

Wider weather episode

A deep fetch of Pacific moisture brought heavy snow to the mountains and moderate to heavy rain to the valleys across the area overnight on January 10th into the 11th. Localized flooding was observed in the Northern Panhandle due to a combination of the rainfall, snow melt and frozen soils. Rainfall amounts were generally up into the half inch to one inch range for this period, which typically would not cause flooding if not in combination with low elevation snow melt and frozen soils preventing water from seeping into the ground. Flooding impacts were minor and limited to low spots in the terrain and along small streams. Rain and heavy snow was followed by a strong cold front passage during the early morning hours of January 11th with strong and damaging winds observed across the much of the area.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (47.9481, -116.7490)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 493481. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.