Winter Hits PACNW Hard

Been a rough couple of days here in the PACNW. First off, we got slammed with about 10 inches of snow on Wednesday. School and business closings were the norm across the western half of the state. Then it began to rain, very lightly. By Thursday AM, everything was coated with a layer of ice about a half an inch thick. That is when the real fun began. It didn’t take long for the tress and branches to start falling and taking out power lines. Some places looked like a war zone. With the state motto being “The Evergreen State” you can imagine the number of trees that line the roads around here. Some of those trees fell across the highways, causing all kinds of havoc.

We lost power at about 8 AM Thursday AM. In fact, more than 250,000 folks across the area, from Seattle and points north down into Olympia and many of the smaller communities in the region. When I drove home from the class I have been attending the past month, there wasn’t a light on for 20 miles, unless power by a generator. It was eerie driving through my little town and not seeing a light anywhere.

While the power was out, we of course lost heat. The temp inside the house dropped to 51 degrees at the lowest point. We slept in longjohns and sweatpants with tons of covers. Fortunately we did have hot water since we have gas at the house. But because we have a newer stove that automatically shuts off the gas, we had to break out the camp cookstove heat up the meals.

Snow Photos

It has been snowing the PACNW. We have about eight inches on the ground with continued snowfall for the rest of the day. We aren’t going to be snowed in like Patrice and her crew over at Rural Revolution, but travel around my area is difficult to say the least.

Here are a few photos from the neighborhood.

The backyard

Looking across the street

Our teenage boys are going to have to dig us out.

Snowfall in New England

It looks like a couple of inches of global warming is going to hit the East Coast today. New York could get its first measureable snowfall since the Civil War. I know most of us weren’t around during the Civil War (although my kids might beg to differ), but I certainly don’t remember my text books (before the progressive ruined history) telling me that this was a time of huge industrialization. I bring this up because somehow, one of the high-priests of global warming/climate change is going to blame this earl snowfall on global warming/climate change.

Snowfall Records Continue to Be Set

Most of my readers know that I am not a proponent of man-made global warming. This opposition is based on two things. First of all, I am a meteorologist. While I was not trained as some prestigious school like Peen State or MIT, steeped in scientific learning, I have years of practical experience. I have studied weather trends that occur over the short duration as well as climatic trends that occur over the centuries (and longer). And if there is one thing that I do know is that weather changes from day to day, year to year, decade to decade, century to century, and eon to eon.

The second reason why I have my doubts is that of those who believe in global warming and would like to change how we live (dramatic change in many cases) tend to be of the progressive/socialist belief system. To many of these people, it isn’t so much that they want necessarily want to change the way we live to save the planet, they want us to change our ways because they want to control our ways. The want to dictate what kind of car we drive, how warm or cool we keep our houses, and even where we live.

Coldest Jan in Quite A While

The average temperature for January 2011 was -0.8F cooler than the 1901-2000 average.  It was also the coldest since 1994.

It is possible Georgia could set the record for their coldest winter ever.

The state of Oklahoma has set their all time record for the coldest temperature ever recorded.

It's Snowing, Part Duex

The other day I mentioned the snow falling up in the mountains nearby. We, it has become cold enough for the white stuff to fall here. We have about 2 inches on the ground. It sure makes things look pure. There a few simple pleasures better than finding an open field with nothing but an animal track or two. I’d post some pictures but my lovely bride needed the camera for her work.

It has created some traffic problems, and tragically, there have been 3 deaths attributed to the poor road conditions. The roads were snarled most of the day.

A couple of years back we had a Dec (2008?) for the record books. Depending on where one is living in the Puget Sound area, there was between 12-18 inches of snow on the ground that lasted for a couple of weeks. This created all kinds of havoc, especially in the city of Seattle. For supposed environmental reasons, the city mayor at the time wouldn’t allow deicer (chemical or salt) to be applied to the road ways. And since there was concern that sand would wash into the Sound, it wasn’t used either. It created lots of big problems for several days. There were some sections of the city (Queen Anne) that didn’t have bus service for at least a week.

I point this out because the PACNW doesn’t have a clue on how to handle snow when it falls in the low lands. It just amazes me to see people try and do the same things with snow on the road ways and when it is dry. And some of the biggest idiots are the dudes in their big, jacked up 4x4s. Don’t get me wrong, I love a big 4-by as much as the next guy. But at least I am smart enough to realize that while the extra set of wheels giving you traction to get moving and will help you out in a pinch, the extra set of drive wheels don’t help you to stop. While running a few errands today, I noticed several tire tracks up past the curbs and it seemed that at least half of them were from over-sized tires. Taking corners too fast I suspect.

Several years back I was stationed in the upper Midwest (lots of snow). In the Midwest, you never saw the traffic troubles that you seen here when a little snow falls. I can recall only once was school canceled. That was for a huge storm just days before Halloween that dumped about 10 inches of wet, heavy snow before the trees had dropped all their leaves. This brought large tress down onto power lines and power was out for many days due to the wide-spread damaged. But here, we get 2 inches of the stuff and all heck breaks loose.

A report from NOAA/NWS earlier this mentioned we are going into a La Nina period. This could mean lots of snow in the lower reaches. The report mentioned as much as 25 inches of accumulated snowfall could fall this winter, maybe more the further north you go.

The same winter as all the traffic issues (2008), our family decided to head to the Skagit River Valley to do a little eagle watching. New Years (2009) day we headed up there, drove nearly to the end of the road (close in winter through Cascades National Park), found a cabin resort as a base camp, then went and observed the birds. The owners of the cabins mentioned it had been a long since the last big snowfall. Boring, I know. But just thought I’d point out that we seem to be getting a little more snow in the low-lands over the past few years.

Here is an image of some of the cabins along the Skagit River.  We didn't stay in one of these. Too pricey for our budget.

Skagit River Valley Cabins

It's Snowing

Well, not here at my house in the lowlands, but it has been falling fast and furious up on the passes.  Stevens Pass and White Pass have not yet given snowfall totals but the web cams show lots of the white stuff on the ground.  I wonder if this keeps up if the areas will be able to open by Thanksgiving.

Really looking forward to taking the boys up skiing this year. One of the best treats for my boys and I is that my wife (and their mother) comes with us although she is not a skier. She'll stake out a place in the White Pass lodge, giving us a base of operations. Armed with a book or needlepoint, she'll spend the day chatting with the other mothers, and occansional father, who do the same thing. We'll have cooler with sandwich makin's, probably some fruit salad, and drinks. We have to purchase some of the hot and greasy fries of course.