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February/Early March 2019 - Your Story


Black Hole

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It's been a wild few weeks in the west. This thread is meant to be a bit more personal and less about the official statistics. I'd like to know about your house, what you saw, and when. Photos would be appreciated. I think this will make it easier to better understand the scope of the event, and which storms did particularly well, for a given location.

I will add my own account later, but the month was not as anomalous in SLC as it was in other spots. Please share! 

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Winter 23-24: Total Snow (3.2")    Total Ice (0.2")     Coldest Low: 1F     Coldest High: 5F

Snow Events: 0.1" Jan 5th, 0.2" Jan 9th, 1.6" Jan 14, 0.2" (ice) Jan 22, 1.3" Feb 12

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As with most places in the PNW, December and January were warm and dry here at 1600' in the Cascade foothills about 25 miles east of Salem. 

 

By late January we started picking up some model noise, but there was a lot of disagreement on how the pattern would evolve. I was hopeful we would see a little bit of snow, but significant amounts seemed like less than a sure thing. By the last couple days of January it became apparent cold weather was on its way, but I would have never imagined it would have unfolded as it did. 

 

A mild start, abruptly turning colder. February 1-7

 

February picked up where January left off with two mild days. I hit 50 on the first day of the month and the mild weather continued until the evening of the 2nd when rain moved in with a much colder system dropping in out of the Gulf of Alaska. This was the system that would eventually usher in the Fraser River blast up north. Down here the transition was much more gradual. Rain fell intermittently on the 3rd, after a midnight high of 39 the temperature dropped near freezing by dawn and a dusting of snow fell. It quickly melted, but later in the evening the rain turned back to snow and began to fall heavily. By the morning of the 4th 7" of snow had fallen. Early in the morning on the 5th a weak deformation band associated with a low level push of continental air brought a couple more inches of snowfall and I reached my max depth for the week of 8". The next couple of days were cold and dry with highs in the mid 30s and lows around 20.

 

Avg Max: 39.7 Avg Min: 28.6 Precip: 1.84" Snowfall: 9.1"

 

Continued cold, turning wetter.  February 8-14

 

The 2nd week of February started cold and with another significant snow event. Winter Storm warnings were up for most of the area, and precipitation ended up being focused towards the Cascades. This favored the foothills in Marion County and we picked up nearly 8" of snow on the 8-9th. By mid-day on the 9th the sun was out temps rose into the upper 30s and we were able to enjoy a fun afternoon of sledding at Silver Falls State Park. Under clear skies temps plunged into the upper teens that night and the 10th was the coldest day of the month with a 32/19 day and snow arriving late. Wet snow fell on the morning of the 11th before turning to rain. The rest of the week would be very wet with precipitation changing back and forth between rain and snow. On the 14th the high reached 41 degrees which was the warmest high since the 2nd. 

 

Avg Max: 37.3 Avg Min: 28.0 Precip: 4.32" Snowfall: 14.9

 

Continuation of cold and wet. February 15-21st

 

The 3rd week of February was more of the same. The rain compressed and melted the snow pack to about 5", but then on the 16th the rain transitioned back to snow as temperatures fell just low enough for precipitation to turn back to snow. Snow fell heavily throughout the day on the 16th, totaling 6.6". Amazingly while the snow was falling the temperature never fell below 33 degrees. It was just heavy wet snow, with ridiculously low snow:water ratios. Another weak system moved through during the end of the 3rd week of the month dropping several more inches of snow. During this time the snow depth hung around 10" with some melting during the day.

 

Avg Max: 37.3 Avg Min: 29.9 Precip: 3.13" Snowfall: 9.9"

 

February goes out with a roar. February 22-28th

 

The final week of the month added even more significant snow. As storms slammed southern and central Oregon enough moisture and corresponding cold air reached the foothills of Marion county producing steady moderate snow for several days. As we were on the northern side of most of these systems cold air poured into the region from the north producing the coldest week of the month overall. We reached a max snow depth of 18", though some places in the yard had upwards of 2' of snow. 

 

Avg max: 36.3 Avg Min: 26.4 Precip: 2.93 Snowfall: 18.2"

 

53596200_256221388655082_604145278699280

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Snowfall                                  Precip

2022-23: 95.0"                      2022-23: 17.39"

2021-22: 52.6"                    2021-22: 91.46" 

2020-21: 12.0"                    2020-21: 71.59"

2019-20: 23.5"                   2019-20: 58.54"

2018-19: 63.5"                   2018-19: 66.33"

2017-18: 30.3"                   2017-18: 59.83"

2016-17: 49.2"                   2016-17: 97.58"

2015-16: 11.75"                 2015-16: 68.67"

2014-15: 3.5"
2013-14: 11.75"                  2013-14: 62.30
2012-13: 16.75"                 2012-13: 78.45  

2011-12: 98.5"                   2011-12: 92.67"

It's always sunny at Winters Hill! 
Fighting the good fight against weather evil.

 

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I documented every day at my house in February starting on the 3rd in the pic thread...

Been an amazing stretch!

 

http://theweatherforums.com/index.php/topic/672-winter-picture-thread/page-7?do=findComment&comment=452630

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Elevation 580’ Location a few miles east of I-5 on the Snohomish Co side of the Snohomish/Skagit border. I love snow/cold AND sun/warmth! 

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I documented every day at my house in February starting on the 3rd in the pic thread...

Been an amazing stretch!

 

http://theweatherforums.com/index.php/topic/672-winter-picture-thread/page-7?do=findComment&comment=452630

That was great! How many inches did you get total?

Winter 23-24: Total Snow (3.2")    Total Ice (0.2")     Coldest Low: 1F     Coldest High: 5F

Snow Events: 0.1" Jan 5th, 0.2" Jan 9th, 1.6" Jan 14, 0.2" (ice) Jan 22, 1.3" Feb 12

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  • 1 month later...

February:

 

The 7th-8th we had about 2-4 inches of snow here in my backyard. On the 24th we got about an inch, and then another inch on the 26th. I guess if you call anything "impressive" in my neck of the woods, it would have to be the brief thundersnow that fell on the 10th. 

 

March:

 

6th- Snow fell all day, nothing stuck.

7th- 2-3 inches, definitely the most impressive event in regards to timing.

 

Overall it was impressive regionally, but very disappointing for the Portland area. Seemed like Mother Nature decided to make everything miss us out of spite. Hurt to be one-upped by Seattle, Eugene, and Redding in one year haha. Definitely doesn't hold a candle to 2016-2017. VERY impressive winter for Seattle-Centralia and the South Valley though.

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"Let's mosey!"

 

--Cloud Strife

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Top 5 Snow Events (post 2014):

 

(1. January 10th, 2017: 18.5 in.

(2. February 6th, 2014: 7.5 inches

(3. February 20th, 2018: 5.0 inches

(4. February 21st, 2018: 4.0 inches

(5. December 14th, 2016: 3.5 inches

 

Honourable Mentions: December 7th, 2018, February 9th, 2019.

 

Total since joining the Weather Forums: 3"

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Starting on Feb.1st-2nd both days in the low 50s here. Feb. 3rd only made it to 39 degrees as a morning high temp as snow began falling and the temperatures dropping around 12pm. Wet snow fell on and off throughout the day but it didn’t accumulate to anything but a trace as of 11pm that night. The next morning temps really kept plummeting and about 2 inches of snow had fallen by 8am with howling north winds in the 35-45mph range. This was the coldest day with an afternoon high of 26 degrees with the wind it was very bitter outside. Cold clear days followed the next 3 days until February 8th. Snow began falling at around 12:30pm here and fell almost constantly from then until 8am the next morning. A little over 9 inches fell in that time period then following the snow came more gusty cold north winds. Then February 10th, 24 hours after 9 Inches of snow fell, Southerly winds began to howl in the 35-45mph range but the temperatures stayed the same at 32 degrees as snow began to fall around 3pm. February 10th was pretty incredible in many ways as 5 inches of snow fell in a few hours with very strong southerly winds and near whiteout conditions. By the morning of the 11th there was now 14” of snow on the ground. February 11th was the last hurrah of the major snow here locally in Tacoma as over 6 more inches fell before 6pm during a big time overrunning event.

The days that followed February 11th were still interesting weather days. Wet snow fell on and off over the next 2 weeks not accumulating to more than a trace a couple times. The 20 inches of snowfall melted off completely by the 27th of February, putting the total snowfall cover days at 24 consecutive days. There were some cold days and also a cascadia outflow wind event on 2/26 that was quite strong for the Tacoma area with 45+mph NNE winds gusts. There were a few strong northerly wind events here, 2/4 2/9 and 2/26 were all strong northerly wind events some of the strongest here locally since around 2010.

The snow and cold were not finished as about a trace of snowfall fell on the 6th and 7th of March. The first accumulating March snowfall since March of 2012. Then on March 8th about 1” of snow fell throughout the morning, which ended up being the final observed snowfall of the 2018-2019 winter. Overall 23 inches of snowfall with 25 diffrent days with snowcover. 24 of those days being consecutive. February is also the only month in the last 14 years of recording data here that there has been a month averaging a high temperature below 40 degrees (average was 39 degrees).

February 2019 holds the records for most snowfall, most 24 hour snowfall, coldest average month and consecutive days of snow cover.

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Tacoma WA elevation 300’

Monthly rainfall-3.56”

Warm season rainfall-11.14”

Max temp-88

+80 highs-2

+85 highs-2

+90 highs-0

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

It was the only February in history for Downtown L.A not to reach 70 F, although Fullerton and San Diego did.

 

Lots of storms and cold weather with a strong atmospheric river on the 14th that dropped over 3 inches in some areas. Palm Springs got over 2 inches. This one caused flooding and rapid snowmelt from previous storms. It was not long though until some colder storms brought more snow, including one that brought snow below 1000 ft and covered some of our foothills. Snow was reported at sea level in Malibu. Things finally settled down after the 1st week of March. All the rain ended our drought, although it was still showing Abnormally Dry on the drought maps for SoCal, which is not considered a drought.

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