High

If you zoom in, you will see this is a picture of a duck swimming on a sidewalk. (No, a real one. And, no, it isn't wearing sunglasses.) The Columbia River was up 16.6 feet on Tuesday. It is predicted to get as high as 17.3 feet today. (This article shows you a picture of the same scene from the other direction.)

If you zoom in on the next one, you will see a tug pushing a barge under a lifted span of the Interstate Bridge. The river is now at flood stage (which is reached at 16 feet) and there is not only less room for boats to pass under the bridge but currents are faster, both of which result in more bridge lifts which now average nearly 2 per day. The span, which provides 176 feet of river clearance when open, is usually raised 10-20 times per month. (The bridge celebrates its 100th birthday this year.)

Also, new fun fact, the Columbia River is tidal, meaning, it has tides. I've noticed the river is higher or lower on any given day but I imagined that was a result of either the tides of the Pacific Ocean somehow reaching us 150 miles upstream or the operation of the Bonneville Dam another 45 miles upstream. But, as you can see here, the river can rise and fall 3.5 feet per day.

It'll be interesting to see what remains of our beach. Should we ever see it again.

Who's ready for summer?