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.

A “Small Craft Advisory” is in effect from 6:00 am Saturday morning until 6:00 am Sunday morning for southeast winds 15 to 30 knots.

Weather Around Whatcom County

Whatcom County Inland Weather

We are going to be gifted with a couple more days of really nice weather.  We are expecting sunny skies today and tomorrow with temperatures reaching 50 degrees or slightly above 50.  Tonight will be mostly clear with lows in the mid-30s.  Places like Maple Falls and Deming could see temperatures drop near freezing so frost could form on bridges and overpasses.  Tomorrow night more clouds will roll in and we could see a chance of some light showers lasting into Sunday.  Next week we will see more rain but temperatures appear to be holding around 50 degrees for highs and the mid-30s for lows.  Wind should not be an issue as predictions are for 10mph or so with an easterly direction today, tomorrow and Sunday.

Rivers and Streams

The Nooksack will continue to run at its current level or even a little lower.  We will see a rise in the river level beginning late Tuesday as runoff from the next weather system spills into the river.  But the increase will not be enough to cause any concerns.

Whatcom County Coastal Weather

For the Strait and Inland Coastal Waters off Whatcom County things are looking good as well.  Wind today will be from the east around 10 knots switching to the northeast tonight.  Wind tomorrow are expected to switch to the southeast and increase to 20-30 knots; it remain that way throughout the nighttime; wind waves will be three to five feet.  Expect the wind to start dropping off after 6:00am Sunday morning eventually getting down to 10-20 knots. 

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.