Flood — Kootenai, Idaho

2014-03-09 to 2014-03-11 · near Cataldo, Kootenai, Idaho

Event narrative

A long duration of heavy rain and snow melt resulted in high flows on the Coeur d'Alene River and surrounding small creeks and streams. Water inundated numerous roads and low lying areas along the river from Cataldo to Harrison: Flood waters inundated CCC Road near the Mennonite Church, Latour Creek Road near a campground immediately south of Interstate 90, and along portions of Dudley Road west of Latour Creek. High flows on Latour Creek resulted in soil erosion near the garage section of a residence on Latour Creek Road. Damage costs were estimated.

Wider weather episode

An upper level low pressure system in the Gulf of Alaska late on March 8th through the evening of March 9th directed a slow north to south sagging atmospheric river across the area. The origins of this atmospheric river were from off of the Islands of Hawaii. This resulted in abnormally high moisture content over the region for early to mid-March. This was a very mild weather pattern with precipitation falling as rain even over the highest mountain peaks. Strong westerly flow resulted in strong orographic enhancement across the mountainous areas of the northern and central Idaho Panhandle. This was combined with good isentropic ascent to produce moderate to heavy rainfall across the area. Mild temperatures resulted in a significant contribution of runoff from the snow pack at mid elevations. This resulted in high flows on the Coeur d'Alene River and along small streams and creeks.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (47.5152, -116.3273)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 505280. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.