James Jones

Andrew just moved up a notch in my book. The last page has been an entertaining read

 

Tim!!!!!!!!

I have no idea why mark Nelsen is such a warm weather ***** now? Is it because his chickens might freeze? It's weird because I remember when he liked snow. Probably just appeasing to what fox12 tells him to say because Portland is the new San Francisco. Lake Oswego and west linn are a hell hole.

 

#huh

Mid January 1888 was perhaps the most intense arctic airmass in recorded history in the PNW.

 

After an impressive early month airmass (21/10 at Portland), a front came barreling in on the 13th and the temps grew progressively colder for the next few days before bottoming out on the 15th-16th. 

 

Temp spreads include 23/-3 at Ashland, an incredible 20/1 at Newport on the coast, 13/-5, at Eola, all time records of 9 and -2 in Downtown Portland (with bare ground!) on the 15th, a 16/10 day at Astoria on the 16th, and all time records of 18/-2 at Downtown Olympia.

 

East of the Cascades the airmass was phenomenal, Spokane set all time records on the 15th with a high of -10 and low of -30. Miles City, MT plunged to -65 on the 14th, still a record for that part of the state, and the historic blizzard that hit the plains with this arctic front was the deadliest in American history.

 

The cold wave lasted for several days before a fairly significant overrunning snowstorm moved in on the 16th-17th. The late part of the month featured a pretty impressive blowtorch.

 

I'd love to know what the 850s looked like for that one. A high of 9 in Downtown Portland is just staggering.

How often have we seen back-to-back sunny days with highs near 60 while still deep in inversion season at PDX? Seems like it has to be incredibly rare.

Sure felt like a PNA spring day out there today.

As per usual? We have had scorching early summers lately. We hit 100+ the last two Junes, and June 2015 was one of the most anomalously hot months on record for our region.

 

Yeah, we've had early starting summers for the past 5 years, the last time we really did have one start in July was 2012. With a decent Nina going right now we have a good chance of a wetter and cooler than average Feb-June period... perfect for setting up our September blowtorch!

00z!

 

This one's for all the marbles.

 

#goaliepulled

#nohuddleoffense

#foulimmediately

#stoppage time

#gibsonpinchhit

 

#stpatrick'sday

#2002

#MyLocation

Anyone else having issues with wunderground? Been glitchy for me since 1/4.

 

Seems like they've been dicking around with it the last few years, it's been getting worse and worse.

Great snowstorm and Windstorm of January 1880

 

January 6-9

 

During this period in January two very powerful low pressure systems tracked across the southern half of Western WA producing one of the greatest lowland snowstorms ever witnessed in a non mountainous location in the lower 48 United States.  Snow depths in some areas of Western WA reached depths in excess of 5 feet and in some extreme cases over 6 feet.  Accounts from the Seattle P-I newspaper confirm that snow depths averaged throughout the city of Seattle were about 52".

 

Storm number one was a strong low pressure system and associated baroclinic band that dumped extreme amounts of precipitation over much of Western WA.  From somewhere around Olympia northward this fell exclusively as snow.  Not only did this storm produce  the greatest snowfall totals (by far) ever seen in Seattle, but it apparently also holds the record for greatest two day precip total ever recorded as well.  My theory is the baroclinic band interacted with nearby Arctic air which caused an unusual enhancement of precipitation totals.

 

Storm number two was an even more powerful low that took a similar track, but produced considerably less (albeit still significant) snowfall for the Puget Sound region.  The bigger story about this storm is it caused a tremendous windstorm in NW Oregon that blew down over half the trees in some places.  The reason this storm caused different results is due to the fact it tracked in on a much different trajectory in spite of the point of landfall and inland track being similar.

 

Below is a chart I constructed for Seattle from that extraordinary month.  It took years to really unravel anything close to what the true numbers might have been for snowfall and water equivalent amounts.  I calculated water equivalent based on the density of snow per cubic which was thankfully provided in the newspaper account.  If memory serves it weighed like 52 pounds per cubic foot!  At any rate based on that and newspaper accounts of the snowfall amounts I came up with what should be a close approximation of water equivalent.  One interesting tidbit in the P-I mentions that one person away from water (presumably on the hill that runs down the east side of the main city) recorded 76 inches of snow in three days!

 

This was truly a storm for the ages.

 

I should also point out the temperatures used for this chart are from Port Blakely which directly west of Seattle on Bainbridge Island, while sky cover and wind are from Olympia.  This is probably the best picture of this month that can be constructed.

 

Pretty amazing that this happened in a month that wouldn't be notably chilly even by today's standards.

I’ve noticed those all over as well. What kind of tree is that? A lot of them seem to be stuck in autumn foliage mode. Seems to be particular to that species.

 

I don’t think weather is even a factor since temperatures have easily been cold enough since October to push them into dormancy.

 

I think Phil is right, Sweetgum. If it is one, it's really odd considering it's native to warmer parts of the continent:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquidambar_styraciflua

 

For whatever reason, this particular tree never clued in to the fact that it's winter.

You are just not looking. Garden group on FB is very active now with reports of things coming up or even blooming (early blooming stuff) in the lowlands all over the place... even in the colder and more stagnant places. I am sure its no different there. Quite a few posts from Maple Valley and Auburn.

 

I saw this tree today and it made me think of you, lol. Winter never started!!!!!

 

I don't unnecessarily disagree with Andrew.

 

Seems like Jesse gets to live rent-free in your head... nice deal.

I like nice weather between storms. This has been a great winter in that regard. I do not need to be pounded with rain every single day for 9 months to call it a good winter. You know this... that is why you are moving to Republic.

 

A winter like 2015-16 was truly miserable. It never stopped raining and there was almost no easterly outflow.

Seeing as we’re not getting arctic air or snow anytime soon, I’m rooting for a bunch of big, juicy Pacific storms to roll through. This winter has been way too dry. Drought concerns are at the forefront of my mind right now.

The 1920's were a great decade.

 

1921-22: Awesome

1922-23: Awesome

1923-24: Awesome

1924-25: Awesome

1925-26: Total disaster, one of the biggest blowtorches on record

1926-27: Awesome

1927-28: Awesome

1928-29: Awesome

1929-30: Awesome

 

And while 20-21 was a bit of a dud, you also had the mind blowing December 1919 blast and huge snowstorm. I do wonder about the validity of the -24 reading in McMinnville though.

Actually seeing snowflakes mixing in for the first time today! Surprising to see in the banana belt of Tigard. Nice to see. 

 

Same here in West Linn.

We need a neutral winter in order to get anything worthwhile I feel like. La Niña winters just don’t seem to do it for the Puget Sound lowlands these days.

'08-'09, '10-'11 and '11-'12 were Nina winters. Last year a lot of Puget Sounders got a big storm in February, even if it melted quickly. Might be more productive to keep whining over and over though.

I’d believe the Euro over the NAM any day.

Yeah, thank god it's the NAM. I recall it doing well last winter though.

00z Euro looks great. I'll take dry cold over no cold any day.

Wow. Big improvement for the pre-Christmas cold shot on the 18z ensembles!

 

Can you post the link? I lost it.

Yeah, no reason for anyone to freak out about it "looking dry." Lots of details to be worked out. But things are looking up regardless. Even hour 384 has another shot coming down the coast. That would probably end up being a good shot of snow for the northern folks. 

 

Yep. Didn't the models show Feb 2014 being dry until like 36 hours before the event?

Question for Phil, how have the verification scores been lately for the GFS vs. the Euro?

 

Some ridiculous eye candy on these GFS runs, but it's hard to feel optimistic without the Euro being onboard. 

Not a drop of precip over Oregon on the 18z.

 

It'll be interesting to see how the lower levels respond if we do indeed see a ridge over us for two straight weeks.

Natural climate change isn’t. Human induced climate change is. I’ll argue it till I die.

 

No idea why all of these scientists bothered with years of school to get their PhDs when we could have just asked you.

Sure. But at OLM for instance, December still ended up -3.0 and January ended up -4.6. February -1.4. 24 highs below 40. That's consistent cold.

 

It was extremely impressive at PDX as well. Could be decades before we see another DJF this cold in the Portland area.

Someone should ban you for your antagonistic, juvenile attitude. Who is the moderator on this site?

 

People like you should get out of your mother's basement once in a while.

 

You never post on this site, then accuse a regular poster out of nowhere of not having a job, and are now whining about him not being banned and living in his mom's basement because of some harmless banter. Calm down snowflake.