Toilet Weather: The Sequel

How's that for a Friday morning headline? I submit to you this video, taken in Washington earlier this week by affiliate KOMO (ABC). This is kind of gross, but imagine for a moment rain that is heavy enough to cause water to spurt out of your commode like a fountain. And remember when you watch this: It's ONLY floodwaters (at least when this video was taken, I don't really want to think about earlier).

That's the kind of heavy rain that they got out in the Pacific Northwest this week. P.S.: I'm assuming the flooding at the end of the video was NOT caused by this one toilet, but rather is related flooding in the community!

Now, I'm not much of a plumber so I'm taking your emails as to what exactly you think is going on here, because the caption for the video (see bottom of this entry) wasn't very helpful.

Blog reader Brad writes: "This will happen anytime you have heavy rain and legacy sewer system that combines storm drains and sanitary sewers into one. When the system is effectively hydraulically full in some area, you can get an artesian fountain at any open point in the affected area at a lower elevation from the highest point where the system is full."

If you have anything to add, email me at

So why is this "Toilet Weather: The Sequel"?

Well, sadly, this isn't the first time I've posted a video of toilet-related weather on my blog. Last December, I explained why wind blowing over the vent at the top of your house can make your toilet slosh - and I posted some incredible videos of this happening at my house, which I'll repeat here (you can download high-res versions on last year's blog entry):

*Not just due to the toilet overflowing, presumably.

OVERFLOWING TOILET VIDEO CAPTION: The storm has brought lots of rain and that's caused lots of flooding. A Seattle-area basement was flooded through an overflowing toilet. Water rushed out of the toilet like a fountain. Washington Governor Chris Gregoire has declared a state of emergency.