By THE DAILY WORLD STAFF, The Aberdeen Daily World , 12/1/98
Axl Rose, of the rock group Guns N' Roses, once sang, "It's hard to hold a candle, in the cold November rain."
Heavy rain and high winds on the Harbor during November would have made it hard to keep a blowtorch lit, let alone a candle.
Aberdeen had 22.48 inches of rain in November, the wettest month since December 1996's 23.1 inches, and the wettest November since 1995's 22.7 inches. The record for November is 24 inches, set in 1990.
Aberdeen is still way behind last year's rainfall. By the end of November 1997, the city had 96.69 inches. This year, the total through November is 73.3 inches.
Hoquiam is also well behind last year. Hoquiam's year-to-date rainfall for Nov. 30 was 62.37 inches, compared with 80.60 inches in 1997.
And Aberdeen's got it relatively easy.
Far and away the winner in the Twin Harbors rain sweepstakes is Lake Quinault, with 115.1 inches of rain as of Nov. 30.
Another characteristic of this soggy November rain was consistency. Westport had only five rainless days in November. Artic only had one.
Meantime, a flood watch was issued for this morning along the Skokomish River in Mason County, and the National Weather Service warned that other flood-prone rivers in the area, especially the Chehalis and Satsop, could approach flood stage by Wednesday night.
At Ocean Shores this morning, 40 mph winds were reported, with gusts to 45. Across the Harbor at Westport, reports were of sustained 30 mph winds with gusts to 44, and waves as high as 16 feet. Coastal winds as high as 72 mph were recorded during last month's storms.
The National Weather Service has issued a high wind warning for the Washington Coast today, where sustained winds of 40 mph with gusts of 60 are expected.
November rainfall at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport set a record, the National Weather Service reported.
A total of 11.37 inches of rain fell at the airport during the month, breaking the old November record of 10.71 inches set in 1992, meteorologist Chris Burke said. The average November rainfall at the recording station there is 5.83 inches.
For the year, Sea-Tac had recorded 34.75 inches of precipitation, about 31Ú2 inches above normal.
McChord Air Force Base recorded 10.9 inches in November.