BLI snowman

That's because it was a December, January, and March-centric decade. Even a winter that actually sucked pretty hairy balls like 1963-64 was overshadowed by the brutally cold months that followed. PDX's March-August was off the charts cold that year. Juneau lite! Would be fun to experience something like that again even if I do enjoy a heatwave or two.

Happy birthday Jim! 60s are a fantastic decade! With a lot of snow and cool summers! Except for 67. Watch out for 67.

Arctic front does make a push towards the NE WA border on this run. Notches!

2015-19 Tim was an absolute saint next to 2006-12 Tim. The combination of much warmer spring/summer weather and him no longer being such a recent SoCal transplant boob really allowed him to morph into the beautiful soul he is today.

Yeah, also makes me think of this one that happened the following year. Sadly both cases are very unlikely to be solved at this point. https://www.king5.com/article/news/crime/unsolved/one-mans-relentless-search-for-killer-in-its-18th-year/281-5d26dcb4-a3e5-4bcf-b8e4-dba203f30a2e

Jives nicely with the summer preference war preview we're enjoying on the fine forum today.

OMG

Real talk though Andrew, I was semi-disappointed that the 00z CFS didn't get the 516 thickness line all up in here. That's a wrecking ball pattern for the Winters Hill region however. And it definitely was on Team Sequel Trough

Yeah, no matter what this winter is a W for us and continues the streak of at least decent performances. We managed a historically cold airmass and overall we will also stave off being the focus of the warmth, unlike a year like 2014-15 or 2002-03 where we were ground zero. Also looks likely that we're going to at least have another crack at lowland snow at a time when Ninos traditionally favor spring-like temps.

Godzilla Niña.

Pretty easy to see it's not a rural vs. urban dichotomy. Simply a matter of there being a lot of extremely mild airmasses this winter in that region, as we have all borne witness to in real time looking at the weather patterns this season. International Falls is running nearly 5 degrees above 1997-98 right now for their warmest winter on record. 1877-78 may well have been very close but the spotty records make it hard to compare it regionally.

Yeah... I think it's pretty evident that Jim was also referring to the magnitude of the warmth rather than just the anomaly centers.

When you have a sizable area that is running several degrees warmer than those Nino years or any other years for that matter, I would offer that it isn't "typical". We know you'd be pointing that out at Usain Bolt speeds if the tables were flipped and MSP or MKE or ORD were pacing for their coldest DJF on record. Let alone by several degrees!!

Yeah, Jim's point was that there has been some unprecedented warmth in places up there. It's not about everyone seeing all-time record warmth. Milwaukee is also on track for a record warm DJF. Two of the biggest cities in the region. It's a rather unnecessary Jaredism qualifier to say "but what about those places that haven't been quite as warm?"

Minneapolis is running about 3 degrees above their warmest winter on record up through this point (2001-02).

It's interesting that two of our greatest March cold waves on record came in big El Niños way back in the day. March 1906 and then March 1897, which was just a ridiculously cold month end to end.

Probably was some up at Cape Horn as well I'd guess, but obviously that's with elevation.

Long range guidance usually is a lot more consistent when there's such a progressive wave train like that. Cold onshore flow is way less bumpy of a model ride.

Seems like the gorge underachieved a little perhaps. Looks like the accumulations started around Bonneville Dam and were generally 2-4" near the river. Still some light snow moving through.

Holding at 36 with rain and the occasional flake mixed in here. Pretty in line with what most models showed. Just a few extra miles makes a big difference with these cold air damming events.

They can do well with onshore flow stuff but aren't great with transition events. Halfway between Seattle and Portland so they can sometimes see snow when one of the big metros doesn't. Probably a pretty similar average to the Puyallup Valley.

I'm struggling to even think of a time when SEW did go big on snow. The PQR curse is a pretty well documented phenomena. Tonight being an example of them overdoing it. Next time it will be the opposite. Rinse, wash, repeat.

I think there's a decent chance for Coast Range cold air damming spots from Forest Grove on up through Columbia County to get a quick inch this evening before the warmer air mixes in. Probably just some brief snow in the air for everyone else this evening in PDX/VUO.