Another soggy one

The Amazon channel looked like brown-water rapids Tuesday running under Chambers Street north of West 18th Avenue. The under-street bike path that runs alongside the channel was flooded with water, creating an adventure for bicyclists who turned one of Eugene’s favorite pastimes into a water sport.

More than an inch of rain fell at the Eugene Airport between 5 a.m. Monday and 5 a.m. Tuesday after almost an inch during the previous 24-hour period. But those were hardly record levels.

The record for March 29 in Eugene is 2.21 inches in 1963, according to the National Weather Service. The record for March 30 is 1.59 inches in 1994. March 31? That would be the 0.88 inches that fell in 1976. The April 1 record came in 1931 with 1.07 inches.

The all-time record for any 24-hour period? That came on Dec. 5 and 6, 1981, when 5.15 inches fell in Eugene. Some found themselves in waist-deep water then, such as the “Avon Lady” who tried to drive her car through the lake that had formed on High Street between East 42nd and East 46th avenues, according to the Dec. 6, 1981, front page of The Register-Guard.

“It should start tapering off tonight,” National Weather Service meteorologist Tiffani Brown said of the recent rains. Thursday calls for only a 20 percent chance of showers. But then another wet-weather system is headed our way on Friday, she said.

As for snow, not only did at least a foot of the white stuff dump in the Cascades on Monday and Tuesday, it was snowing in Eugene’s south hills Tuesday morning. Snow got down to the 500-foot level in some areas of Lane County, according to the National Weather Service.

And just in time for April Fool’s Day: Oregon has extended its studded-tire deadline from April 1 to April 11. But it’s no joke. It’s the snowy conditions on the mountain highways.

Concerns from those driving in the mountain passes prompted the extended deadline on studded tires, Oregon Department of Transportation spokesman Rick Little said. Motorists now have until 12:01 a.m. April 11 to remove the tires from their vehicles. So much for Eugene’s pothole problem.

Studded tires cause at least $11 million in damage each year to streets, roads and highways in Oregon, according to ODOT. Therefore, despite the 10-day extension, the agency is still encouraging motorists to use other types of traction tires or chains instead of studded tires in the coming days.

As it snowed in the mountains, heavy rains continued to fall from black, angry skies in the valley off and on Tuesday, causing rivers to swell.

“It’s like a significant winter weather event,” ODOT spokesman Rick Little said.

A tractor-trailer rig got stuck in the snow on Highway 126 at Badger Mountain, east of Walton. Other adventures Tuesday for ODOT included an overturned car in a ditch on Highway 22 east of Detroit and a rockslide on Highway 501 in the Alsea area. Crews were busy sanding the roadway on Highway 126 on Tuesday, Little said.

There also were reports of downed trees in the area on Monday and Tuesday.

Today’s forecast calls for showers and a possible thunderstorm after 11 a.m. with a high of about 50 and an overnight low of 32.