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” remains in effect until 1:00pm this afternoon for south winds 20-30 knots.  Environment Canada is calling for southeast winds 15-25 knots.

Weather Around Whatcom County

Whatcom County Inland Weather

Several weather systems will continue to impact our area over the next week bringing showers and rain to the area.  The heaviest rain will fall today and then we could see a partial clearing later tomorrow before the next weather system brings a chance of rain.  High temperatures will be in a range between 45 and 50 degrees with lows from the low 40s tonight to the mid-30s tomorrow night and bordering on the freezing level in some areas.  Winds are forecast to be less than 15 mph over the next couple of days out of the south and then switching a little more to the north tomorrow night.

Rivers and Streams

The Nooksack has started to rise at the Saxon Bridge and Cedarville sites and will soon begin to rise in Ferndale.  There is no prediction of any flooding. Nevertheless, always be on guard for water over the road, and if you encounter this, find an alternate route.

Whatcom County Coastal Weather

For the Strait and Inland Coastal Waters off Whatcom County southeast wind at 10 knots will increase to 15-25 knots tonight with wind waves of two to four feet. Those winds will drop tomorrow to around 10 knots and switch to the west.

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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.