PNW December 2022 - Part II

[LowerGarfield]

39 minutes ago, High Desert Mat? said:

I’m with you Jim. Don’t really care for wind at all. More of a nuisance than anything. My least favorite part of the weather. 

Add me to those who don't care for windstorms but I also work from home and depend on power to get paid and in summer I live in a fire area.

[snow_wizard]

4 minutes ago, MossMan said:

Hawks decided to leave their house…Didn’t sound good. 

I know that helpless feeling when the rain just keeps falling in a case like this.  It's slow torture when you have trees around.

[Omegaraptor]

2 hours ago, Prairiedog said:

We got married in Leavenworth Dec 28 many years ago.  It was truly magical.  8" fell the day before so when we took everyone on sleigh rides (Redtail Canyon Farms) in two giant sleighs pulled by Belgium draft horses, it couldn't have been better. 

We stayed for 4 nights, 1,000ft above Leavenworth at Mtn Home Lodge.  As they say there, "you're a 1,000ft closer to Heaven".  They snow cat you in usually as it's a narrow snow covered dirt road with a huge canyon on one side.  You have a commanding view of town below, the Enchantment Mountains as a backdrop and you can look up Icicle Canyon.  They bring in a cook and the food is like nothing I've ever had. 

We've been to Leavenworth many times since and many on this forum have as well but if you haven't, it's a must esp this time of year.  Magical place for sure.  Touristy but it's just something you need to experience.  One of the best bed and breakfasts anywhere is Run of the River Inn.  Usually booked a year out.  Also the Sleeping Lady, on the Icicle River at the end of town is pretty cool. 

Winthrop has a nice place to stay at Sun Mountain Lodge with a commanding view of the mountains as you're perched on a hilltop.  It's a great little western town but nothing like Leavenworth.  Best Bakery around just a few miles out of Winthrop in Twisp.  If you don't mind the crowds, the eateries, shops, and Christmas themed shops in Leavenworth are second to none.  Christmas 24/7, 365 days a year. 

Truly sounds like a dream. I will have to visit some day!

[LowerGarfield]

45 minutes ago, TacomaWx said:

Kind of a recap of this year here in Tacoma…has been very interesting at times. Last year had some interesting stuff too. Thought some of the statistical people here would like this. 
 January       7.47” -0.1F 

-nothing too notable…started off chilly after the snows of December 2021. 

February      4.92” -0.5F snow-0.3”

-Fairly chilly with a nice late season blast 2/22. Huge AR event at the end of the month. 

March          2.98” +1.3F

-nothing noteable. 

April             3.63” -2.8F snow-TR.

-Spiked to 73 on 4/7 then had measurable snowfall on 4/12 and 4/14. Very chilly wet month. 

May              3.95” -3.4F 

-Coldest May since 2011. Pretty wet too.

June             3.63” -0.1F

-Very wet to start off with a big AR event mid month. Brief heatwave at the end.

July              0.28” +2.4F

-Record breaking duration heatwave with 7 straight +90 days. 

August         0.22” +3.3F

-another very warm month…but 2 separate thunderstorm days on 8/10 and 8/19. The storm on the 19th was crazy. 

September  0.11”   +2.6F

-Very dry, warm then eventually smoky Start to fall. 

October       1.87”  +3.3F

-Very extended period of smoky and very unseasonably warm, dry conditions in the first half. 

November   5.33” -4.2F snow-1.9”

-Flip switched back to one of the coldest novembers in decades for many places. Ended with a nice snowfall. 

*December 3.25” -4.2F snow-4.1”

-started off pretty chilly with 4 snow days in a row. Then a hard hitting blast swept through just 2 weeks later with some snowfall then ZR. 

I really enjoyed your write-up.

[snow_wizard]

21 minutes ago, Skagit Weather said:

Well, I rose up to 54F overnight with wind gusts to 30 mph. Regardless to say, that type of weather is a true snow killer. There isn't a scrap of snow left outside except for the snowman I made last night which is only about 40% the size as he was 9 hours ago.

That is truly sad being Christmas Eve.  Still only 38 here in the south wind / east wind battle ground.

[BLI snowman]

Beginning to think these widget weather alerts aren't very accurate.

[joelgombiner]

Snoqualmie Pass eastbound closed. Crazy inversion with 8 degrees at 3,000 feet and 32 degrees at 5,500 feet directly above the pass. Unfolding as modeled by the GFS (and others) with heavy freezing rain. 

[Hyperbolic Trendz]

12 minutes ago, MossMan said:

I rate this event a 5 out of 10. Last December’s event was an 8. This would have been higher if the timing was where we had the heavy snowfall from Tuesday morning was either this morning or tomorrow morning instead of the upper 40’s slop we are in now. Also we didn’t quite get enough snow for my liking at 8” total. Also the duration was shorter than I would have liked…At least make it to the 7 day mark, 5ish days is not long enough. The ice was kind of cool but there wasn’t enough here as precip lacked. Also didn’t meet or break my low of 3 from last year. Only made it down to 8. All in all it was still an awesome event, just didn’t hold a candle to last December. 

Your snow greed is shameless and insatiable.  We should add a snow blower to the reactions menu to symbolize greedy posts.

[snow_wizard]

Incredible to see the models already trending colder even in the short term.  Persistence is a powerful thing.

[TacomaWx]

9 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

I think you're being a little bit hard on it.  It's worth a couple of extra points from a bizarre standpoint alone.  I've never seen a cold wave with the details of this one.  I think you're getting a bit used to awesome events nearly every winter now.  If you were looking at this from a perspective of this being 2006 instead of 2022 you would probably feel differently.  

For Whatcom County this was a straight up 10 no matter how you slice it.

IMBY this cold wave had the coldest max since Dec 1990.  Pretty impressive.

It was a pretty impressive memorable event even if we only managed just under an inch of snow. Was very legit cold for 72 hours with a significant ice event. Definitely wasn’t as much snow south of Everett to Tacoma for the most part…with none south of here. I really enjoyed it overall. Was pretty epic north of Everett. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

2 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

Incredible to see the models already trending colder even in the short term.  Persistence is a powerful thing.

HUH

[TacomaWx]

3 minutes ago, DecimalCat said:

Your snow greed is shameless and insatiable.  We should add a snow blower to the reactions menu to symbolize greedy posts.

Lol I think Randy’s starting to think that his location averages 3’ of snow a year with how many amazing events there’s been in recent years. 

[ShawniganLake]

13 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

I think you're being a little bit hard on it.  It's worth a couple of extra points from a bizarre standpoint alone.  I've never seen a cold wave with the details of this one.  I think you're getting a bit used to awesome events nearly every winter now.  If you were looking at this from a perspective of this being 2006 instead of 2022 you would probably feel differently.  

For Whatcom County this was a straight up 10 no matter how you slice it.

IMBY this cold wave had the coldest max since Dec 1990.  Pretty impressive.

I’d probably give it an 8 or a 9. It would be nice to get a lengthy stretch of dry cold weather with snow on the ground.  Shawnigan lake was just starting to ice up around the edges. 

[Snownerd3000]

Imagine this precip with a colder system and that cold air in place 

[MossMan]

20 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

I think you're being a little bit hard on it.  It's worth a couple of extra points from a bizarre standpoint alone.  I've never seen a cold wave with the details of this one.  I think you're getting a bit used to awesome events nearly every winter now.  If you were looking at this from a perspective of this being 2006 instead of 2022 you would probably feel differently.  

For Whatcom County this was a straight up 10 no matter how you slice it.

IMBY this cold wave had the coldest max since Dec 1990.  Pretty impressive.

My standards have really gotten unreasonably high after the last 5 years or so. After a crap winter or two in the future I’m sure my expectations will become much more reasonable again. 

[ShawniganLake]

Abbotsford YXX is at 27.7F for the month. 

[Cascadia_Wx]

29 minutes ago, Omegaraptor said:

Hillsboro at 32.

Pretty much got the best case scenario with the vast majority of precip during this event falling as sleet out here.

Reminds me of something that might happen in Modoc or Lassen county.

[TT-SEA]

Not sure if @Hawksfan2008 has checked in yet... but my sons were able to get out and go to work after I chiseled the driveway out for 3 hours.   We have no ice on the trees at all up here.   But they said North Bend looks like a war zone and the trees are still covered in ice with many trees down.    We got really lucky up here.  I assume we will be losing our power again as they try to fix everything down in North Bend.    But we are heading to Bellingham in the morning anyways.

[MossMan]

Good news! The temp has dropped from 48 to 46 over the last hour! 

[MV_snow]

I give the event a solid “B” for this area. We had one of the coldest days I can ever recall here on Thursday with the wind chill below zero most of the day. Wednesday was no slouch either. It was also nice to get a solid inch in the ground before the cold started. The downsides were the short duration, not much snow, and ending in ice. Last December was better in that we had a half foot of snow on the ground for a week before it turned into a slushy mess.

[MossMan]

Just now, TT-SEA said:

Not sure if @Hawksfan2008 has checked in yet... but my sons were able to get out and go to work after I chiseled the driveway out for 3 hours.   We have no ice on the trees at all up here.   But they said North Bend looks like a war zone and the trees are still covered in ice with many trees down.    We got really lucky up here.   But I assume we will be losing our power again as they try to fix everything down in North Bend.    But we are heading to Bellingham in the morning anyways.

He Checked in a bit ago saying they were packing up and leaving, it was getting too dangerous with the trees. 

[MR.SNOWMIZER]

1 minute ago, TT-SEA said:

Not sure if @Hawksfan2008 has checked in yet... but my sons were able to get out and go to work after I chiseled the driveway out for 3 hours.   We have no ice on the trees at all up here.   But they said North Bend looks like a war zone and the trees are still covered in ice with many trees down.    We got really lucky up here.   But I assume we will be losing our power again as they try to fix everything down in North Bend.    But we are heading to Bellingham in the morning anyways.

Are you above freezing? Looks like north bend is around 30-32.

[Omegaraptor]

Our power just went out.

[joelgombiner]

1 minute ago, TT-SEA said:

Not sure if @Hawksfan2008 has checked in yet... but my sons were able to get out and go to work after I chiseled the driveway out for 3 hours.   We have no ice on the trees at all up here.   But they said North Bend looks like a war zone and the trees are still covered in ice with many trees down.    We got really lucky up here.  I assume we will be losing our power again as they try to fix everything down in North Bend.    But we are heading to Bellingham in the morning anyways.

Scary stuff. Glad you had the elevation to avoid the carnage! Not looking good for the colder, lower areas based on the radar and surface obs. 

[MossMan]

1 minute ago, MV_snow said:

I give the event a solid “B” for this area. We had one of the coldest days I can ever recall here on Thursday with the wind chill below zero most of the day. Wednesday was no slouch either. It was also nice to get a solid inch in the ground before the cold started. The downsides were the short duration, not much snow, and ending in ice. Last December was better in that we had a half foot of snow on the ground for a week before it turned into a slushy mess.

And the timing was nearly perfect with the onset happening on Christmas! We had that entire time between Christmas and New Years to enjoy it. 

[MR.SNOWMIZER]

1 minute ago, MossMan said:

He Checked in a bit ago saying they were packing up and leaving, it was getting too dangerous with the trees. 

Did he have major ice? Looking at the radar and temps they are getting it bad.

[Hawksfan2008]

Got out of North Bend safely. The town is a mess with things much worse on the east side of town. I’m disappointed the NWS was not better with the area. Ice warning should have been posted yesterday when it didn’t warm up during the brief southerly push. Models had winds going back easterly till this afternoon. 

[Cascadia_Wx]

Holding at 31 here with some of the heaviest precip since we fell below freezing Wednesday afternoon. Luckily I think it’s close enough to freezing now where there won’t be significant ice accumulations at this point. Wouldn’t surprise me if we bump up to 32-33 in the next few hours.

Ended up with a 28/19 day yesterday. It was actually dry much of the day and quite nice and wintery looking with our sleet pack and decorative coat of ice. All in all we got off a lot easier with the freezing rain situation than I anticipated. The cold and wintery precip the last 3-4 days have been really enjoyable IMO. Made for some great lead-up to Christmas weather.

[Chewbacca Defense]

36 minutes ago, North_County said:

Wait, Bellingham warmed by 15° in 12 minutes? Any BLI people able to confirm?

Yup, pretty much happened here.  Woke up at 6 and took the dog out and it was 33, by the time she ate and went out for her "morning constitutional" it was around 44-45 (I can't remember, I posted about it earlier).  I am sheltered from the south winds so it takes a little longer, but yeah I can totally believe  that.

[Hawksfan2008]

4 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Not sure if @Hawksfan2008 has checked in yet... but my sons were able to get out and go to work after I chiseled the driveway out for 3 hours.   We have no ice on the trees at all up here.   But they said North Bend looks like a war zone and the trees are still covered in ice with many trees down.    We got really lucky up here.  I assume we will be losing our power again as they try to fix everything down in North Bend.    But we are heading to Bellingham in the morning anyways.

Warzone is the best way to describe it… glad things are better up there 

[TT-SEA]

4 minutes ago, MR.SNOWMIZER said:

Are you above freezing? Looks like north bend is around 30-32.

Definitely above freezing here.   Station near us is at 34.    When we went to bed the trees were all ice covered and weighed down and when we woke up there is literally no ice on the trees anywhere up here.   Water is pouring off the roof too.

[SouthHillFrosty]

Just got my first ever weather station!

[MossMan]

Just now, SouthHillFrosty said:

Just got my first ever weather station!

Awesome!!! 

[Chewbacca Defense]

37 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

I think you're being a little bit hard on it.  It's worth a couple of extra points from a bizarre standpoint alone.  I've never seen a cold wave with the details of this one.  I think you're getting a bit used to awesome events nearly every winter now.  If you were looking at this from a perspective of this being 2006 instead of 2022 you would probably feel differently.  

For Whatcom County this was a straight up 10 no matter how you slice it.

IMBY this cold wave had the coldest max since Dec 1990.  Pretty impressive.

This ice event at the end took a couple of points off....I guess you could say it lost points for "not sticking the landing"

 

But yeah, gets high marks for the quantity and quality of the snow, and a 13/5 day is nothing to sneeze at.

[MR.SNOWMIZER]

This little girl has me lol. 

 

[Sandy rocks]

If I were to rate this latest weather. I would give the two days of cold weather a 5 and the weather from hell a -10 for an average of -5. So far I have had 4 inches of slop snow. I want some real snow.

[Cloud]

The melt off is fast and furious! We now just have spotty ice left and snow left. That should rip later this afternoon. 

[Deweydog]

3 minutes ago, Sandy rocks said:

If I were to rate this latest weather. I would give the two days of cold weather a 5 and the weather from hell a -10 for an average of -5. So far I have had 4 inches of slop snow. I want some real snow.

Jesse just texted me and wanted me to tell you that math doesn’t check out.

[MR.SNOWMIZER]

Great example of the cold pool off the sw of Olympics.  Still just 42 here. But over 1 inch of rain in the last 5 hrs.

[snow_wizard]

31 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

HUH

Looks at the GFS meteograms for SEA 0z vs 12z.  12z is much chillier.