Rain Or Shine, Wind Or Calm, '97 Had It All -- Weather: Frightful Or Delightful

It was the best of years, with a long string of blissful fall days that felt more like spring. It was the worst of years, with vengeful winter storms, blistering winds and devastating mudslides that upended the lives of many and ended the lives of a tragic few.

Last year delivered snow and heavy showers, foggy mornings and freezing rain, dreary skies but dry afternoons, sun and outdoor silliness as ski addicts made their way down sodden hills . . . in the rain . . . wearing plastic bags. A record 13 tornadoes were spotted in a state that sees only one twister, on average, per year.

As tumultuous as last year's weather was, 1998 promises to be historic as the most powerful El Nino of the century will likely build up enough steam to begin leaving an even more distinctive fingerprint on local weather.

A summary, from the National Weather Service and Seattle Times files, of last year's weather:

January: The last week of 1996 delivered storms carrying snow and freezing rains. The year's first storm also packed a wallop, with 40 mph winds and gusts up to 65 mph that temporarily closed the Hood Canal Bridge. Winds as high as 80 mph on the Olympic Peninsula disrupted power.

Already-sodden ground couldn't absorb the additional heavy rains, resulting in floods, mudslides and avalanches. Nearly every county in the state was declared a disaster zone; disaster expenses were estimated at $161 million.

Thirty roads in King County were closed as a result of mudslides and sinkholes. The slides also buckled 30-year-old steel supports, closing the Magnolia bridge from Jan. 2 to May 8. A slide in Woodway knocked five freight cars into Puget Sound. Fifty Seattle-area homes had to be evacuated. A Lynnwood woman perished under a collapsed roof. A family of four died when a Bainbridge Island mudslide pushed their home into Puget Sound while they slept.

Three hikers were killed by an avalanche near Mount Index in Snohomish County.

February: Three Coast Guard crewmen died during a rescue attempt at La Push when their lifeboat overturned in rough seas. In Pierce County, cattle were killed by a lightning strike. The month tied a record with a high reading of 58 degrees on Feb. 16.

March: Heavy rain along the south slopes of the Olympics delivered Round II of floods and mudslides. Rivers in Grays Harbor and Mason counties surged to record crests. An Easter Sunday windstorm killed two: a canoeist near Gig Harbor and a woman whose car was struck by a tree on the Mukilteo Speedway. Fallen trees cut off power to 160,000 people.

Heavy rains in the middle of the month dumped 22 inches on the southern Olympics and spawned 40 mudslides in Western Washington. Nearly 300 homes were damaged by floods and slides. The Skykomish River crested at a record 17.6 feet, more than 2 feet higher than flood stage.

April: Spring didn't. Average temperatures were 49 degrees, with lows dropping into the 30s. No day was 100 percent sunny and only nine were soda-cracker dry. The month recorded more than its fair share of rainfall with 4.32 inches, compared with the average 2.33 inches. In higher elevations, snowpack grew to 190 percent of average levels. In Snoqualmie, a woman was injured by lightning.

May: Mother's Day was a semi-sizzler with a high of 81, tying a record set in 1959. Half of the month was warm and dry and for a dazzling dozen days the sun blazed in cloudless skies. But other days of the month resembled October, with drizzle and chilly temperatures that dropped as low as 38 degrees. A second record breaker came with rainfall on the last day of the month when 1.21 inches dropped. That surpassed a record-setting 0.97 inches of rain in a single day in May, set 20 years earlier. Four tree-toppling tornadoes were spotted.

June: Summer's arrival was delayed. June ushered in spring-like weather, with 1.91 inches of rain - twice as much rainfall as the previous June. Half the month was dreary, drizzly and damp, with only seven days nudging the mercury as high as 70 degrees. Low-pressure systems were blamed for the showers.

July: Four tornadoes were reported, two in Okanogan County and two in Stevens County. The month was a bit more pleasant than usual, with 21 sunny days. It was a bit wetter than average, too, with 1.2 inches of rain. Snow lingered in the mountains like an unwelcome guest. Mount Rainier's Paradise still had a foot of snow, an event that hadn't occurred since 1974 and a reminder of the best snowpack since the early 1970s. Forks, Clallam County, recorded 5 inches of rain in a single day. (One of the nation's wettest places, Forks topped a rain record that had been set in 1921 with a total of 12 feet of rain by mid-December this year.)

August: So many days were warm and dry that meteorologists wondered if a record was about to be broken. Then thunderstorms, fires sparked by lightning, marble-size hail, power outages and heavy rains disrupted the harmony. In just six days, 1.16 inches of rain fell. Funnel clouds touched down as tornadoes in Snohomish County - damaging a barn - and in Grays Harbor County, Omak and Yakima County. Late in the month, strong winds toppled a tree into a pickup near Mount Rainier, killing four people.

September: There were two gale-force wind warnings and 15 days of rainfall ranging from misty to pelting. Rain totaled 3.41 inches, almost twice the monthly norm of 1.88 inches. But, paradoxically, a few days - Sept. 8, 9, 22 and 24 - recorded highs in the 80s.

October: The month began and ended with high winds and drenching rains.

The winds took the lives of five boaters: A woman's small boat capsized on Lake Washington near Renton in winds that measured as high as 52 mph. Four people died when a 58-foot boat overturned in rough waters off Lummi Island, near Bellingham.

Meanwhile, a lighting bolt struck a Newcastle home, zapping an 8-foot hole in the living-room wall.

Nearly 6 inches of rain fell, almost double the average precipitation for October (From October 1996 to October 1997, the so-called water year, 17 more inches of rain fell than the previous water year). And for seven days, fog was dense enough to reduce visibility at the airport to a quarter-mile or less.

November: This was a warm and dry month with little rainfall in its earliest days and highs in the 50s. The month set record highs on Nov. 9, 10 and 13 with temperatures of 64, 63 and 62, respectively. A windstorm that was forecast and widely publicized did not materialize, but a two-minute touchdown by a tornado broke windows and damaged trees in Oakville, Grays Harbor County.

December: Milder temperatures and half as much rain as normal had many smiling, but shallow snow levels in the mountain passes had some skiers pining for last year's bumper crop of snow.

Even though days were dry and temperatures were mild, December was still a gray month. And a few days were truly December-like, such as Dec. 14, when the skies rained gently, temperatures warmed slightly and winds blew like the dickens. Average wind speed was 13.6 mph, but the fastest clip was 44 mph. "That's a speeding ticket," joked National Weather Service spokesman Bob Herzog.

Credit El Nino for the month's slightly boring weather?

For much of December, the National Weather Service and other meteorologists exchanged yes-it-is and no-it's-not jabs. In late December, the Weather Service conceded the point that Clif Mass, an atmospheric-sciences professor at the University of Washington, had been championing earlier: A persistently split jet stream found one soggy arm reaching toward the Yukon and another extending into Southern California.

Meanwhile, the abnormal jet-stream pattern meant this region received warm, dry and largely benign weather. "It's not just one or two days. It's day after day after day," Mass said. "This is an El Nino situation now."

Diedtra Henderson's phone message number is 206-464-8259. Her e-mail address is: dhen-new@seatimes.com