Weather

First day of season ushers in dramatic weather

Jon Meyerjmeyer@idahopress.com

Monday, September 24th, 2007

The first day of fall kicked off the season with a bang as a storm system dumped heavy rain across the region and brought chilly overnight temperatures.Rain fell in the valley much of the early morning hours Sunday, with Caldwell’s official station recording more than an inch of rainfall as of 6 a.m. Temperatures were expected to dip near 40 overnight, and tonight could be even cooler with lows in the upper 30s. Patchy frost is possible.

The Owyhee and Boise mountains also received heavy rain, prompting the National Weather Service to issue flood advisories. However, there were no reports of damage.

TREASURE VALLEY — Heavy rainfall prompted a warning for Boise County early Sunday morning because of fears that fire-scarred mountainsides could be susceptible to flash flooding and mudslides.The decision by the National Weather Service to enact the warning at 2:08 a.m. was prompted by the concern that storms in areas affected by recent wildfires would make flooding a real possibility.“The burned surfaces are more water repellent (rather) than soaking it up,” Joel Tannenholz, a meteorologist for the Weather Service in Boise, said. “We were worried that the ground was unstable, but there have been no reports of debris flow or flooding yet.”

Tannenholz said the heaviest levels of rain that were concentrated further to the south than expected. The system moved east of the area later Sunday morning and the warning was withdrawn at 4:15 a.m., he said.

Even though Deadwood Summit, which rises to 6,658 feet near one of the burn areas, received 1.3 inches of rain in 24 hours, it was spared from flash flooding. Yellow Pine, in Valley County, also near several wildfire areas, saw the highest rainfall figures, reporting about 2 inches in 24 hours.

A hazardous weather outlook remained in place along with a flash flood watch until noon Sunday. But forecasters say no additional hazardous weather is predicted for the rest of the week.