Sunday's Pineapple Express storm not as fierce or as wet as expected

The Pineapple Express was more the size of a kiwi fruit.

The National Weather Service had warned that a powerful storm moving in from Hawaii -- a pattern dubbed the Pineapple Express -- could bring high winds and up to 8 inches of rain in the mountains Sunday. But as it turned out, areas on the western side of the Cascades and in the southern Olympic mountains got less than half that.

And as of Sunday evening, only a half-inch of rain had fallen on Seattle.

More rain fell Sunday night, including heavy rain on the slopes of the Cascade Mountains. As a result, the weather service issued flood warnings for parts of western Washington, including areas around the Tolt River near Carnation, the Stillaguamish near Arlington in Snohomish County and the Skagit River near Concrete in Skagit County.

Minor flooding was expected, with waters likely reaching their peak in the predawn hours today.

Drivers are cautioned to avoid roads covered by water. Any flooding was expected to subside by late this morning.

Doug McDonnal of the weather service said the flooding would be nothing like last November's damaging floods.

On Sunday, Seattle City Light reported no power outages. Puget Sound Energy, which powers the Eastside and areas around Seattle, saw scattered outages of about 1,500 customers.