ThisguyonJeopardytalkedtoofasttoday. WhoisZheLu?

A high percentage of these had widespread or significant lowland snow in December, and several had major bouts of Arctic air that month. Some of the older analogs were also very cold in January, but obviously that's been a much tougher nut to crack recently (although baby steps have been made).

Overall, the argument for a front-loaded winter looks about as strong as I've seen in awhile.

Here's the preceding November composite for those winters.

Hot Dogs Everywhere

It started subtly, the way it always does. Someone pointed out—again—that the cold was still out past ten days. Someone else replied that it had been out there yesterday too, and the day before that, and somehow that felt worse now. The thread slowed for a minute, then exploded. Complaints stacked faster than maps. The GFS got accused of kicking the can, then accused of lying, then accused of personal bias against the Pacific Northwest. Little hot dog avatars began popping up next to usernames like warning lights on a dashboard.

Edmonds Crusty went first. Full hot dog. Every post was a variation of here we go again, south winds always win, and nobody ever learns. He quoted old busts, reminded everyone how many times the cold had died right at the doorstep, and insisted that anyone still watching this was setting themselves up for pain. SpaceChaser69 wasn’t far behind, lamenting how the PSCZ always looked perfect until it slid north at the last second, tagging him with cold rain while everyone else posted snow pics. His avatar flipped to a hot dog and stayed there. Scottie Scheffler’s Sex Drive piled on from Eugene, complaining about eternal 35-degree misery and asking what it took to get a real winter south of Salem. Another hot dog appeared.

High Desert Pat jumped in loud and irritated, swearing the models were clueless and that reality didn’t match what they were showing. He posted twice in a row, then three times, each one angrier than the last, insisting the cold was obvious if people would just stop trusting garbage guidance. His avatar turned into a hot dog mid-rant, which only made things worse. FairFuck echoed him, less angry but just as dismissive, pointing out that at least Central Oregon would probably still do fine when everything else busted. GoldRisesHandy tried to talk elevation, but nobody was in the mood. His post got ignored, then quoted angrily by someone else, and suddenly his name was sporting a hot dog too.

Domebuster watched it unfold and stayed mostly quiet. When he did post, it was a short, dry line about how day-10 winters were undefeated and how everyone needed to breathe. It didn’t help. Someone accused him of going soft. Someone else said he’d been wrong before. He didn’t engage. Not worth it. Millibar Creeper kept posting runs anyway, one after another, letting the data roll while hot dogs multiplied around him. Cabin John dropped a dense wall of acronyms that nobody understood and nobody wanted to, which somehow inflamed things further. Half the replies weren’t even about the weather anymore—just frustration dressed up as analysis.

By the time the next update rolled in, the thread was a sea of hot dog avatars. Everyone was miserable, everyone was invested, and everyone insisted they were done caring. Buoy Fog cracked a joke about the forum turning into a concession stand, which earned a few laughs before he, too, picked up a hot dog for “minimizing legitimate concerns.” SleetScheisser tried to stay positive and got labeled a weenie for being unrealistic. Even that calm, measured post people thought might be Park Nelsen got side-eyed for “underselling” the pain.

And yet, when the next run started loading, the complaining paused. Just for a moment. Everyone refreshed. Hot dogs and all.

How will California weather or lack thereof continue to bore us over the next 2 years? Anymore tropical storm direct hits or record breaking May Gray and June Gloom spells to come? Will El Nino deliver some nice juicy storms or will it wimp out on us? 

Technically in Bend, but I am much closer to Tumalo.  Moved over here for a new job, my old one was outsourced a couple years ago.  I was told Mt. Bachelor was renowned for its skiing but I haven't seen it yet.

This will be a post-by-post archive of every arctic blast to affect Seattle, WA. Yes this is Seattle centric, but there will be stats for BLI, OLY, PDX, and EUG as well.

Arctic blasts I am defining by any weather pattern with a high below freezing. This is cold enough that it should weed out all but the chilliest inversion setups, and even then those such inversions are usually aided by backdoor easterlies of some kind.

Each blast will get its own post, and will be ordered from most recent to oldest. Extended events like January 1950 with warm interludes will be analyzed by each individual dip, as well as in aggregate. The aggregate posts will be labeled as such. The posts will be organized as follows:

-500mb height loop for the relevant timeframe, including the buildup and aftermath.

-Min/Max / Min / Lowest daily departure for the blast at each listed site

-# Subfreezing highs at each site

-# snow (in) at each site

Where data, particularly snowfall data, was missing, I exercised creative liberties when applicable. This included referencing nearby stations from the same immediate metro area, or using snowfall depth as a proxy. OLY data is particularly sparse, to the point where snowfall data does not exist at all, so I had to put some blanks in there. If anyone has some backup datasets, DM me please!