These Daily Briefings on Incidents, Advisories, Watches and Warnings, current weather and Emergency Management tips are published Monday through Friday, as well as during times of increased awareness or actual events.

The U.S. and Canada have extended an order closing their shared border to nonessential traffic until at least December 21, 2020. This includes both vehicular and boating between the countries.

The “Proclamation of Emergency” signed by the Whatcom County Executive concerning COVID-19 remains in effect. Information about Whatcom County’s response to COVID-19 is available at the Joint Information Center’s COVID-19 website.

Weather Around Whatcom County

Whatcom County Inland Weather

Once again we’re looking at a pretty nice day although it will  be mostly cloudy today.  Winds are still going to be light from the southeast in Bellingham and east of the city while the northern part of the county will experience northeast winds if at all.  Highs will be near 50 degrees.  Tonight will see decreasing clouds and light wind with temperatures in the low to mid 30s.  Expect frost to form on the side of roads, bridges and overpasses.  Tomorrow will be mostly sunny with temperatures around 50 degrees and light winds again.  Tomorrow night will be mostly clear with lows in the low to mid 30s.

Rivers and Streams

There are no changes to the slowly leveling off of the Nooksack River.  We can expect current levels to remain about the same until next Wednesday or Thursday when we will see the level rise some but not to a level that requires taking action.  As we enter early next week, we'll be able to better determine how strong the weather system will be..

Whatcom County Coastal Weather

For the Strait and Inland Coastal Waters off Whatcom County things are looking good as well.  Wind will be from the east in the 5-15 knot range today and tonight with wind waves two feet or less.  Tomorrow the wind will switch to the east/northeast and drop to around 10 knots causing one foot wind waves.

COVID-19

Everyone in Washington State is directed to wear a face covering while at any indoor public space and any outdoor public space where you may be within 6 feet of someone who does not live with you. You can find more info about face coverings and other protective actions here and here.

King Tides

A King Tide is a non-scientific term people often use to describe exceptionally high tides. Tides are long-period waves that roll around the planet as the ocean is "pulled" back and forth by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun as these bodies interact with the Earth in their monthly and yearly orbits. Higher than normal tides typically occur during a new or full moon and when the Moon is at its perigee, or during specific seasons around the country.

In Whatcom County we pay particular attention to King Tides that occur in the late fall / early winter as many times these coincide with, and can be aggravated by, our wind storms.  This has resulted in significant impacts in our coastal communities, such as occurred in Birch Bay and Blaine in December of 2018 when over 5 million dollars in damage was caused by a King Tide and wind storm.  We define a King Tide as a tide of at least 10.1 at Cherry Point (Whatcom Counties official tide station).  Over the next couple months, we will have King Tides on the following days:

For those who are tide watchers, these are pretty impressive tides but as happened in the 2018 storm, the tides were pushed nearly two feet higher from the storm pressure (called storm surge) and then the west wind added another 3-4 feet of waves.

This briefing line is not updated on weekends unless an incident occurs.