Flood watch in effect for county
<p>Water ponded at the northeast corner of U.S. Highway 95 and Kootenai Cutoff Road on Tuesday. (Photo by KEITH KINNAIRD)</p>
SANDPOINT — The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for the northern Panhandle on Tuesday.
Forecasters said small stream and urban flooding is possible with total rainfall since Monday of 1-3 inches. High-elevation snow will be a nuisance for mountains passes above 5,000 feet, such as Shoshone County’s Lookout Pass.
The weather service said more heavy rain is expected into next week, which will continue to pose a threat for small stream or urban flooding.
Bonner County Emergency Management Director Bob Howard said the rain had yet to cause any serious havoc as of Tuesday afternoon.
“So far, so good,” Howard said.
Soaking rains on Monday and Tuesday caused water to pond at the northeast corner of U.S. Highway 95 and Schweitzer Cutoff Road, where highway widening work is under way. There was also water running over part of Samuels Road, although Howard said that’s not an uncommon occurrence.
There were no road washouts reported on Tuesday, Howard said.
The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration reported that Sandpoint received 1.78 inches of rain on Tuesday. A little more than a half an inch was received on Monday.
The rains put a bit of a damper on base-building on Schweitzer Mountain Resort’s slopes.
The resort reported on Monday that it had received 15 inches of snow over a 48-hour period, but reported on Tuesday that the snowfall turned to rain overnight.
“The good news is it’s supposed to switch back to snow and stay that way tonight,” read a message posted to the resort’s online snow report.
The weather service forecasts valley rain and mountain snow today