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We finally did it - we finally got a new house!! We had to pretty much sacrifice our first born child in order to get it but still, we got it! 4 bed/3 bath, 2200 sq ft for roughly $400k. Best elementary school in the city is literally right down the street around the corner. It's also open to corn fields in the back so you best believe I'm going to grab an IP camera and put it up for time lapse videos like @Jginmartini (love your videos dude!) as we don't really have anything blocking our view besides a farm house. Redfin recently notified me of a house that sold a few doors down from our old house in Maple Valley. 3 bed/2 bath, 1300 sq ft. Listed for $625k and sold for $730k. Freaking insane! So glad we made the jump over here and are able to get a house almost twice the size for only $10k more than we spent on our old home. Should be moving in by the end of May/early June. We are so excited!!

Gorgeous morning here as well! Blue bird skies, snow cover with green grass underneath it all. Dropped down to 22F and the mountain snowpack is actually now above average!

Got both Rainier and St Helens in the same shot when I was heading back to Sioux Falls yesterday.

Very heavy rain mixing with snow here this morning. Already 0.65" on the day. Currently 35F. Starting to think we might actually kick most of this Northwest drought (barring southern OR) by mid month with SWE snowpack in the region sitting at average to well above average now with a whole lot more moisture to come over the next ~10 days.

The entire NW basin changes from April 1st to now is really incredible. April to remember that is for sure. Should see some significant improvements with the ongoing drought conditions in the coming weeks.

One last shot as the storm approached earlier this evening. It was a pretty one with good structure. Always fun to see the inflow along with the hail circulation within the updrafts! 0.90" on the day and 3.24" on the month. Things are beginning to look lush again!

I know I have an absolutely horrible reputation here, and most wanted me gone for good after I was banned in September. Much of that is my own fault. But I would like some honest feedback. What exactly am I doing to make the preference wars worse than they would otherwise be in this cool and wet spring? I mean besides simply being present and having the history I do. I post daily obs and commentary of the models, maybe the occasional nature pic, and have been actively avoiding direct engagement in this garbage for months now. I have my opinions of course, but I have gone out of my way to avoid personally insulting others and jumping in on the many arguments. Hopefully that hasn’t gone complete unnoticed by everyone.

Classic anvil shaped thundercloud visible from Columbia Hills state Park this fine afternoon

It’s been a blast…body a bit tired from all the hiking but so worth it. Been conditioning for this for a while and so far so good. 4Runner has had some exercise as well! Also found this cool flash flood spot ( better then Universal a studios…lol!).

Checking in on the wet PNW! 1.32 for the month and currently 50* I’m currently situated in Montrose Colorado….never heard of the place or the Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park. So I went! Photographs do not capture the sheer depth of this canyon! Yikes 71* currently and sunburn a bit

Great first day of chasing! Loving it! These are in southeast Oklahoma. Off to Nebraska today to wait for tomorrow. IMG_6014.MOV

Oh man, seeing that date stamp + snow has brought back some serious feels... I was in the middle of my first deployment to Iraq during that storm. Things were freaking brutal. We had been getting mortared for the most of the month and I was running on little to no sleep. That night I ended up under a desk with my laptop for company because it was just non stop. As I'm sitting there, stewing with anger/fear and waiting nothing more than some dang sleep, my mom sends this lovely chatty email with pictures of the family over thanksgiving and then of the storm. You know the kind of pictures I'm talking about, the whole family at the dinner table, my beloved dog frolicking in the snow, the neighborhood looking all perfect and peaceful under a cover of white... I have never been so homesick in my life. Poor mom, I lost it bad and sent a pretty mean email back ("why are your torturing me with all these pictures!?!?! whinnnnnnnne!"). Anyhoo, I finally got some r&r a couple of weeks later, had sleep, and called to apologize. She promptly send me more pictures of the snow. I say all that to say, I would be thrilled for 2006 repeat as I missed it on the first go around. LOL although I just bought plane tickets to Munich for a week and half in November, so my luck it will snow while I am gone again.

Checking in 68/52 with 3.39 in the bucket for the month Federal Way. Looked nice according to the Nest cam! I’m not missing the PNW and really don’t want to come home. Sounds like my yard is out of control according to my caretaker of the house…..ugh! Otherwise it’s been beautiful down here in the SW. it was just a bit nippy in this location earlier!

Creeks still going strong too. This is usually pretty dry country at this point in the spring, in the scablands between Catherine Creek and Coyote Wall.

I went out to get a picture of the rain in the distance and found two bald eagles with the usual contingent of angry harassing crows.

To a certain extent sure, but you made it sound like the climate of Montana is on fire when things aren't dormant which is false. When in fact it's really the massive fires in CA/OR/WA that is causing most of the smoke. With that all said, fire/smoke is also part of living anywhere in the West and Montana is no exception. In non drought years it can actually be quite lush, green and smoke free right on through summer because our wettest months of year are late Spring/early Summer and also plenty of Summer t-storms. Here's Late July through late August 2018 with no watering! Just matured wheat fields, green grass and snow covered mountains for days.

12z ECMWF 10 Day Rainfall, Snowfall totals Extremely wet as we move into May with more mountain snows!

Massive improvements in the statewide snowpack out here this month! So great to see and more significant snow/rain is on the way this week! April really came through this year after a really dry winter, especially for the mountains.

Looks like the Tonga eruption has been estimated at VEI 6. Largest since at least Pinatubo. Also produced the loudest sound on Earth since Krakatoa. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2022GL098123

Tried to catch what might be the last good alpenglow of the season on Mt. Stickney. It certainly benefited from the extra foot of snow.

First severe warned storm of the season about to hit here! Looks to be packing some big hail...

Rainy morning in Bozeman. We had good flights with nothing more than the usual turbulence near the mountains. Tiny bit of snow remained from the system that hit the other day, but I’m sure it is gone now. For my last 2 trips to Bozeman, my rental has been a Toyota Forerunner. I like my zippy little Jetta Wagon, but I have to admit the Toyota is starting to grow on me. I blame @Jginmartini and all his talk about his recently acquired rig. Also, my son is all kinds of excited about the picture released this morning of the black hole at the center of the galaxy. He found out Monday that research he did about a year ago on black holes is going to get published, the news today, and then graduating tomorrow, not too shabby a week for a astrophysics kid!

33.3 moderate snow. lol

Ha, mainly because everything is still dormant so it's not all that pretty right now but it's nice to see the grass finally greening up though. Just finished up the first mow of the year in fact. It was a gorgeous day with high of 59F!

Nice day in Redding so far

Here she comes with her hurricane force gusts and dust storm to boot!!

Just measured another 7" this evening since this second wave hit about 3 hours ago. 11" on the day now and absolutely pouring snow still. The first wave that brought 4" of snow this afternoon melted down to 0.51" of liquid so this system is once again packing some serious moisture. Garden boxes are just about buried again...

Had to pick my son in Snoqualmie Ridge this afternoon... some nice spring scenes on this beautiful afternoon.

83* and sunny today (Arches) Let me entice you back!

Congratulations and excited for you and your family!!! Your storm videos will rule and can’t wait to see the show from your area! Looks like I missed and active day yesterday in my neighborhood but I’m out playing…again. Sunrise in Moab

Awesome light show in Rochester, Minnesota last night! Can’t wait to work on my photos. IMG_6460.MOV

I hope it SNOWS next winter.

Nice evening for a walk with little man at Silver Falls.

Ended up with 14" here in about 12 hours with a low of 27F this morning. If we can hold onto a good chunk of the snowpack today we could see some pretty impressive low temps tonight.

If anyone wants to follow along it is also dumping in town. https://www.americanbankmontana.com/bozeman-webcam

Pretty impressive midday accumulations on all surfaces for almost mid May! About 4" already.

Mid-60s with thick overcast and booming thunder in the dinstance. If only all of summer could be like this.

Another snowy morning. Picked up 5" overnight and still coming down heavily. Currently 32F.

Wanted to share some photos around the North Puget Sound! The weather is cool today, with large areas of sunshine, and large areas of NOT sunshine! Some pics you can see the rain coming down further north! Very cool clouds and weather!

My wife is having surgery in a few hours and I’m pretty nervous. Hope everyone here is doing ok.

Started a new part time job today in addition to school. Hopefully there are no thunderstorm outbreaks while I am on shift...

This place is seriously beautiful and it doesn’t even need to try.

My wife was into football and I remember it was funny watching her s school the men on stats. She even tried to join the football team back in junior high because she was in track and could run like the wind. I really loved watching her throw a football perfect like she could. Finding that card brought back a bunch of memories, I really miss her. She was my princess.

I don’t really see any issues with you or anyone. We’re all just discussing and reacting about weather. Life is way too short to get worked up over something we have no control over. We’re human and we all have our own preferences. As long as nothing gets personal all is good!

I wanted to say I have really enjoyed your posts the last few days. You are a welcome addition to the forum.

43* and 2.30 precipitation for the month Federal Way I have seen Spring….ya just need to travel to it ! Rowena Plateau trail (Columbia River Gorge) was not the place to find it though….chilly blustery winds. In wind sheltered areas of the hike it was quite lovely with the flowers blooming though.

This what Table Mountain looked like from Nelson Hill yesterday which is where my mine is. Never seen the like in May. The Wenatchee Mountains are much drier than the Cascades so normally have a much earlier melt off.

Man its been a while since there has been one of these multipage preference wars/I'm right you are wrong wars. LOL!

50 days until sun angles start DECREASING.