PNW December 2022 - Part II

[Terreboner]

Still around 40 here in Terrebonne.  We hit our high temperature of 43.6 right at midnight.  I'm heading off to a few service calls and will give an update on temperature when I get back later today.  

[FroYoBro]

Cooler air is already starting to head our way from the east. The Dalles is down to 27 with an east wind. It will be fun to track the temperature through the gorge today!

[Chowders]

Unbelievable how cold it is in the Methow.  The weather station closest to the cabin at twin lakes, below sun mountain lodge showing minus 29. Also interesting how much variability between stations so close together.  Frost line depths being put to the test, but over 2 feet of snow helps insulate the ground.

[Guest hawkstwelve]

FWIW, a week or two ago the Euro was showing 0.68 inches of ice here all the way up to a couple hours before the event. I was shitting bricks. We ended up with about two tenths of an inch. Way more manageable.

Might be apples/oranges but just use it as a reminder that the Euro, while usually the King, is not infallible. 

[Kayla]

Picked up 4-5" here early this morning with the Arctic front. Dillion MT had a 26 degree drop in three minutes with the front!

Going to be interesting just how low we go! Currently -17F here with light snow continuing to fall.

[Frontal Snowsquall]

Arctic air is starting to filter its way into the Columbia Basin. Spokane down to 7 and Pasco down to 2.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Down to 2 in Pasco, some cold air already working down into the lower Columbia Basin. 

[Cascadia_Wx]

15 minutes ago, FroYoBro said:

Cooler air is already starting to head our way from the east. The Dalles is down to 27 with an east wind. It will be fun to track the temperature through the gorge today!

We need ROB.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

4 minutes ago, Frontal Snowsquall said:

Arctic air is starting to filter its way into the Columbia Basin. Spokane down to 7 and Pasco down to 2.

Noticed The Dalles was still 43 as late as 3:30a.

[Guest hawkstwelve]

9 minutes ago, Kayla said:

Picked up 4-5" here early this morning with the Arctic front. Dillion MT had a 26 degree drop in three minutes with the front!

Going to be interesting just how low we go! Currently -17F here with light snow continuing to fall.

Looking forward (sorta kinda) to joining in on the cold fun!

 

[Cascadia_Wx]

Last night The Dalles spiked from 30 to 48 in about three hours when the wind switched to WNW. Then a few hours later starting plummeting over 20 degrees to 27 over the course of another 6 hours as the wind switched back to ENE. Pretty dynamic.

Edited December 21, 2022 by Cascadia_Wx

[Tyler Mode]

1 minute ago, Cascadia_Wx said:

Last night The Dalles spiked from 30 to 48 in about three hours when the wind switched to WNW. Then a few hours starting plummeting over 20 degrees to 27 over the course of another 6 hours. Pretty dynamic.

I wish the east winds would reach us sooner so we can watch daytime temps fall...but as it looks right now it'll happen just before sunset.

[Chewbacca Defense]

9 minutes ago, Kayla said:

Picked up 4-5" here early this morning with the Arctic front. Dillion MT had a 26 degree drop in three minutes with the front!

Going to be interesting just how low we go! Currently -17F here with light snow continuing to fall.

That's hard to wrap my head around....change in temp of 8 degrees a *minute*  That would be awesome to witness/experience for sure....

also...wind out of the SSW at 12, dead calm 7 minutes later, then 32 gusting to 39 out of the NW 3 minutes after that.  I have experienced wind change like that, but not a temp drop.

[Anti Marine Layer]

Happy shortest day of the year

[MossMan]

Got about an inch last night. 
Currently 15.8

[TT-SEA]

Another couple inches of fluff overnight.    If we didn't get into the warm sector yesterday with heavy rain and 40mph wind we would truly be buried here.   We got 3 inches on Sunday night and then 4 inches on Monday night which pretty much melted in the rain and wind for 6 hours yesterday morning... then got most of it back in about 2 hours around noon... and then 2 more inches overnight.    So 3+4-4+3+2 = 8 inches net since Sunday.    On top of 1-2 inches of concrete at the bottom leftover from the late November snow.    If all that heavy rain yesterday morning was snow we would probably have another 10 inches of snowfall and would not have lost the 4 inches... so a net 14 inch difference due to getting into the warm sector.

Anyways... it gorgeous now and I would love it to stay this way.   But we have 48 hours to enjoy it before the freezing rain arrives.   

[SilverFallsAndrew]

43 at 10p last night, 37 at midnight and now down to 29. 

[Cascadia_Wx]

33 here currently which is the low for the day so far. Ended up with a 46/32 yesterday with .24” rain. PDX really, really wanted to be the only station in the I-5 corridor to hit 50 but failed, so their streak goes on. 

It was 38 here at midnight, which could end up being the high for the day. PDX was 41 at midnight.

Edited December 21, 2022 by Cascadia_Wx

[Kayla]

2 minutes ago, hawkstwelve said:

Looking forward (sorta kinda) to joining in on the cold fun!

 

I know right!? While a historic airmass is awesome to track, we literally can't do anything outside from now through Friday morning. Almost instant frostbite aside, when you step outside and breath you can feel your lungs tighten up and it feels like an elephant has sat down your my chest!

With that said, I'm still going to venture outside do the boiling water experiment tomorrow!

[SilverFallsAndrew]

No real cold to speak of over the next couple weeks, but temps should return to average or slightly below by the new year. So it doesn’t at this point look like an extended torch. A signal developing of some pretty rapid GOA blocking growth around the 15-20th of January. The 18-25th seems like a good window if we were going to get an arctic blast in January. 

[Kayla]

6 minutes ago, Chewbacca Defense said:

That's hard to wrap my head around....change in temp of 8 degrees a *minute*  That would be awesome to witness/experience for sure....

also...wind out of the SSW at 12, dead calm 7 minutes later, then 32 gusting to 39 out of the NW 3 minutes after that.  I have experienced wind change like that, but not a temp drop.

Yeah it is pretty wild. Wasn't quite as impressive at my house, temp dropped from 34 down to 10 in 20min but still pretty incredible.

[TT-SEA]

I have to jockeying cars around to clear the driveway with my sons home for Christmas break.  

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Also watch the January 5-10th period. In a lot of our better Januaries following December’s that had cold, that is when the cold starts to develop, usually with low amplitude GOA ridging that starts sending in progressively colder maritime systems, some of the longer range GFS runs have also hinted at this progression. 

Edited December 21, 2022 by SilverFallsAndrew

[Kayla]

11 minutes ago, Cascadia_Wx said:

Last night The Dalles spiked from 30 to 48 in about three hours when the wind switched to WNW. Then a few hours starting plummeting over 20 degrees to 27 over the course of another 6 hours. Pretty dynamic.

Did something similar here yesterday. Was 2F at 1pm, spiked to 35F by 3pm with westerlies kicking in then back down to 0F by 1:30am and now currently -18F. Dynamic!

[Cascadia_Wx]

1 minute ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Also watch the January 5-10th period. I’m a lot of our better Januaries following December’s that had cold, that is when the cold starts to develop, usually with low amplitude GOA ridging that starts sending in progressively colder maritime systems, some of the longer range GFS runs have also hinted at this progression. 

At least early signs indicate this late December/January will deviate from 2006 pretty early on 

[ShawniganLake]

56 minutes ago, Meatyorologist said:

25/22 here. Coldest temperature of the season thus far, beating out 26F early this month. Probably not going to warm up much past this today, then we'll shatter that figure later tonight into tomorrow morning. On the watch for the coldest temperature I've ever recorded/lived through, and potentially the first single digits since Dec 1990. A new 2" of snow blanketing everything ought to help with that effort tremendously.

Hopefully it clears here tonight.  Could be our first single digits since 2008 (I think).  We often get stuck under low clouds along the east side of the Island during outflow events so we will see if it actually clears. 

[Canadian guy]

Outflow starting to pick in Victoria and the temperature is now down to 20.

[Guest hawkstwelve]

2 minutes ago, Kayla said:

I know right!? While a historic airmass is awesome to track, we literally can't do anything outside from now through Friday morning. Almost instant frostbite aside, when you step outside and breath you can feel your lungs tighten up and it feels like an elephant has sat down your my chest!

With that said, I'm still going to venture outside do the boiling water experiment tomorrow!

Yeah, my father in law is visiting this week. We were wanting to take him around Falls Park with all the lights they put up but decided we'd rather not risk getting frostbite!

And that's funny. There's been talk in our house of also doing the boiling water thing tomorrow, when wind chill values will get us down into the -40s. Always wanted to try it but never really had the opportunity. Might as well take advantage now!

[Tyler Mode]

 Love watching these temp drop!

[Katzen]

Morning deck check, maybe 1/2 in new overnight

[Chewbacca Defense]

5 minutes ago, Kayla said:

I know right!? While a historic airmass is awesome to track, we literally can't do anything outside from now through Friday morning. Almost instant frostbite aside, when you step outside and breath you can feel your lungs tighten up and it feels like an elephant has sat down your my chest!

With that said, I'm still going to venture outside do the boiling water experiment tomorrow!

Unfortunately a lot of folks in that part of the country DO have to venture out into it to tend to the cattle.  I have a friend who lived on her aunt's cattle ranch up on the hi-line part of Montana.  She said it was so cold one winter they were boiling water in the house and by the time they got it across the yard to the barn it had a thin layer of ice on it.  I think it ended up being one of the biggest cold snaps on record, but don't remember what she said the temp was.

[Timmy]

16 minutes ago, Tyler Mode said:

I wish the east winds would reach us sooner so we can watch daytime temps fall...but as it looks right now it'll happen just before sunset.

Gradients just turned offshore, so maybe sooner

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Nws going with a daytime high of 22 at PDX tomorrow, 27 at SLE, 32 at eug… 

[Kayla]

1 minute ago, hawkstwelve said:

Yeah, my father in law is visiting this week. We were wanting to take him around Falls Park with all the lights they put up but decided we'd rather not risk getting frostbite!

And that's funny. There's been talk in our house of also doing the boiling water thing tomorrow, when wind chill values will get us down into the -40s. Always wanted to try it but never really had the opportunity. Might as well take advantage now!

Yeah you should do it, it's always fun! Works best with temps below -20F.

[Tyler Mode]

2 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Nws going with a daytime high of 22 at PDX tomorrow, 27 at SLE, 32 at eug… 

I wish this wasn't so short before our overrunning system.

[Cascadia_Wx]

2 minutes ago, Tyler Mode said:

 Love watching these temp drop!

That’s getting closer. 

[Blizzard777]

40 minutes ago, hawkstwelve said:

FWIW, a week or two ago the Euro was showing 0.68 inches of ice here all the way up to a couple hours before the event. I was shitting bricks. We ended up with about two tenths of an inch. Way more manageable.

Might be apples/oranges but just use it as a reminder that the Euro, while usually the King, is not infallible. 

This is the one storm most of us don’t want and want it diluted down by the time it plays out.  Lol…..it’s the one that will probably demolish us…..I so hope not though. 
 

27* with light snowflakes trickling and drifting down out of the sky 

[Cascadia_Wx]

1 minute ago, Tyler Mode said:

I wish this wasn't so short before our overrunning system.

I’m just glad we’re getting any cold at all out of this airmass. There were periods where it looked like we wouldn’t.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

The good news for January is even a very pedestrian January by 1961-1990

climatic norms would come off significantly colder than any since 2017. 

[Kayla]

4 minutes ago, Chewbacca Defense said:

Unfortunately a lot of folks in that part of the country DO have to venture out into it to tend to the cattle.  I have a friend who lived on her aunt's cattle ranch up on the hi-line part of Montana.  She said it was so cold one winter they were boiling water in the house and by the time they got it across the yard to the barn it had a thin layer of ice on it.  I think it ended up being one of the biggest cold snaps on record, but don't remember what she said the temp was.

Yeah, ranching in Montana is no joke! Really feel for the animals during times like these as well.