Flood in Lincoln County, Washington

Numerous county roads damaged and culverts washed out. State Route 231 was closed from Reardan to the Stevens County line due to flooding over the roadway. State Route 223 was closed from milepost 44 to 66 due to water and mud over the road. A four foot section of a driveway was washed out due to a culvert being overrun by flood waters. Flood waters inundated a culvert resulting in damage to portions of Hawk Creek Ranch Road. Pooling of water was reported in Edwall due to culverts being overwhelmed by flood waters. Damage costs for the event were estimated.

The region was under a transitioning weather regime through the first week of March. March 1st came in dry and very cold under a modified Arctic air mass. This kept soil temperatures below freezing across much of the northeast portion of Washington. March 2nd into the 3rd brought heavy snow across these same areas as dry northerly flow was replaced by milder and wetter southerly flow. This wetter and milder flow regime continued into March 5th, but with snow levels lifting above valleys floors. A pair of Pacific storm systems bringing through more sub-tropical moisture into the region resulted in moderate to heavy rainfall in the valleys. The first weather system during the early morning hours on March 5th resulted in a short duration mixed precipitation event for portions of the Northeast Mountains. This lead to pockets of icy roads early in the morning before temperatures warmed up late in the morning and in the afternoon. The main impact over this wet period was flooding over the Palouse, upper potions of the Columbia Basin and in the Spokane Area. Flooding was exasperated by low elevation snow melt and frozen soils.