luterra

I'm thinking the snow is over for the south valley. Now if only it would clear out for a weekend of skiing around the lowlands. Nope, ice and 33-degree rain. Hoping for more of the latter and less of the former. This is at least double the snowpack I have ever seen in the PNW lowlands, will remember this one for a long time.

There's a section of 13% grade on our driveway that got us stuck in 15" in our Forester, with the wheels spinning on the packed tracks and the undercarriage dragging. I'm sure it could push through two feet on level ground.

OK, I have officially seen enough snow now. 8" today on top of 10" yesterday. With compaction, snow depth is 15". There is a limit to what a Subaru with chains can drive through, and if we get another 5" it the work-to-fun ratio will tip in favor of work. 650' on the east slope of the coast range west of Philomath. Had snow yesterday until 3 pm, then ZR for two hours, sleet for an hour, and back to snow. Today have seen nothing but snow, temp up to 30. Perfectly OK with me if the next two storms go north or bring just rain here.

To be fair, Mr. KMartin got some ad hominem attacks sent his way for the mere act of posting here. Haven't been around long enough to see why he got banned last time, but I can see why he might be on the defensive now.

Some photos from 650' elevation west of Philomath. Snow depth approximately 13"

Portland may keep going for a while under the main deformation band. Down here the forecast was for light snow in the morning becoming heavy in the afternoon. We got 8+ inches in the morning and will be lucky to get another inch in the next narrow band. Not much more coming off the ocean after that.

The HRRR shows a N-S band of precip moving inland from Lincoln City down to Coos Bay, likely associated with a weak upper-level cold front. That band is also showing up on current radar loops, but it is three hours ahead of the HRRR. We may not have as much time left with this storm as the models believe.

There are two bands. The southern band has been dumping moderate to heavy snow over Philomath-Corvallis-Albany-Detroit since 7 am, around 7" now in Corvallis. Looks like the end of that band will be reaching Corvallis momentarily. The northern band started out as a narrow E-W strip through Clark County and has now expanded to cover Tillamook and PDX. That one looks to be going strong for the foreseeable future. 7-8" is enough for me - time for the northerners to get a turn...

Insane snowfall rate from Philomath to Albany. Up to about 5" now in Corvallis and still coming down hard. Drive from Albany back to Corvallis was not particularly fun. I-5 blocked with crashes north of Albany.

centi-inches, 0.01"

We live at the end of a mile-long unplowed driveway. Might actually need to chain up the Subaru...

Highways around Corvallis are looking like Minnesota roads this morning, with drifting snow and wind helping to keep the lanes open. Everything cancelled except Linn-Benton Community College, where my partner happened to have a workshop today. I'm currently parked at LBCC watching it snow. Would say 2" so far.

Rather unfortunate timing: PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PORTLAND OR 530 PM WED FEB 5 2014 ...NOTICE OF MESOWEST WEATHER STATIONS OUTAGE THURSDAY FEBRUARY 6TH 2014... ROUTINE NETWORK MAINTENANCE CONDUCTED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH WILL CAUSE ALL MESOWEST WEBSITE PRODUCTS ON THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WEBPAGE TO BE EITHER UNAVAILABLE OR NOT CURRENT THURSDAY MORNING INTO THURSDAY AFTERNOON. IN ADDITION...ALL MESOWEST LDM PRODUCTS AND API SERVICES WILL LIKELY BE UNAVAILABLE OR NOT UP TO DATE. THE ROMAN WEBSITE...HTTP://RAWS.WRH.NOAA.GOV/ROMAN/ WILL BE AVAILABLE DURING THE DOWNTIME PERIOD. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE.

Looking better up Seattle way for the weekend. If the GFS is to be believed the Willamette Valley will have ~6 hours of snow, maybe 3-4" Saturday night and we will wake up to find it melting in the rain on Sunday morning.

Bloody cold for us, for February. Just like lows in the upper 30s would be bloody cold in June... He who states that a troll he is not, a troll may be.

One of the oddest looking patterns I have seen. Lots of cutoff features, lots of variables at play. Can't say I'm strongly convinced of anything past hr 120. That strange tightly wound cutoff high over northern AK is combining with the polar vortex over Baffin Bay to generate crazy strong meridional flow. Not sure what to make of it all yet, but it better be something fun :-)

I'm not sure you were so spot-on. You did forecast the NE Pac ridge, which was to some degree a persistence forecast as the ridge was already strong last fall. You did say that the best chance for arctic air in the PNW would be December, which verified nicely. On the other hand, you forecasted a flip to +AO in January with zonal flow and above-normal temperatures across the US. That may yet happen a month late or so, but for now we remain locked in predominantly -AO with crazy cold for the east.

Just getting a post in on the first page.... In weather news, quite a few trees came down in Corvallis on Saturday. We live on a remote road and were without power for about 14 hours when a 2 ft diameter fir fell across our road and power lines.