Wild weather brings record moisture

In the nearly 20 years that Sheridan Acres resident George Uebele has been tracking precipitation, he has never seen it as wet as it has been this October.

"I've been keeping a tally on the weather on a monthly basis since 1991," he said. "Before this year the highest rainfall for the month was October 2009 with 3.65 inches. Part of that was the water content of 8 inches of snow."

As of Monday, Uebele said he had 4.34 inches for the month, which is a new total for October.

Uebele reported that Sunday's storm dumped 2.29 inches of rain in Sheridan Acres.

In Minden, R-C weather watcher Stan Kapler said he measured as much rain as he has ever seen at one time. Kapler said 1.74 inches of rain fell in the Douglas County seat. Kapler said he has received 3.49 inches so far this month.

According to the National Weather Service, Minden typically receives 8.38 inches of moisture during the water year which ends on Sept. 30. Last year, Minden received 9.91 inches or 118 percent of average.

The heavy rain prompted the National Weather Service to issue a small stream flood warning for Carson Valley on Sunday.

Both the west and the east fork of the Carson River crested near the action stage, which is the first level of flooding. Had there been a large snowpack in the mountains or more rain on the way, the action stage is where a flood warning would be issued.

At times up to a fifth of an inch an hour was falling in Carson Valley, according to the county hydrological threat Web site.

High winds greeted residents early Sunday morning, hitting up to 62 mph at 7:27 a.m., according to Uebele.

A flood advisory was in effect for the Walker River basin with minor lowland flooding in Yerington and Wabuska.

The wind knocked the power out to about 2,000 people in Gardnerville late Sunday.

NV Energy spokesman Karl Walquist said the outage began at 11:36 p.m. when the wind knocked power lines together and affected an area between highways 88 and 395 with Centerville Lane on the south. Power was restored by 12:47 a.m. Monday.

Rain returns to the forecast on Friday with a 30 percent chance of rain.