Petersburg set a new daily record for rainfall Tuesday with 3.75 inches coming down. That’s the rainiest January 14th the National Weather Service has on record for Petersburg. The service’s records are incomplete and date back only to the 1940s.
It’s the second daily rainfall record already for 2014. The first day of the year was also the rainiest January 1st on record with 2.07 inches.
These are not the rainiest January days on record. January 29th of 1993 the community saw 5.14 inches. And it’s still a long way from the rainiest day every recorded in Petersburg. That was December 30th, 1980 with the rainfall total that day at 7.8 inches.
Local creeks are full with the rainfall and snowmelt. Borough public works director Karl Hagerman says there was some flooding on Mill Road and Cornelius Road but no reports of landslides or washouts on borough roads. No slides impacted state-owned roads on the island either, according to the Department of Transportation.
Meanwhile, DOT spokesperson Jeremy Woodrow says two slides have been cleared on Prince of Wales Island roads. Woodrow says both the Hollis to Klawock road and the road to Coffman Cove were open Wednesday and cleared of debris that came down Tuesday.
While its been wet and windy, Petersburg is not setting any temperature records this month. The thermometer hit 50 degrees Tuesday, still well below record January days in the high 50s and low 60s set in January of 1981 and 1958.
