PNW January 2023 Observations and Discussion

[weatherfan2012]

2 hours ago, Phil said:

You know it’s been a loser winter when a 20 second snow flurry grabs your attention. Haha.

Literally the 3rd best snow “event” so far this winter here.  I’ve got maybe 0.1” total from all 3 snow showers combined.

Only other winters that were *this* bad (to date) in my lifetime are 1997/98, 2006/07, and 2012/13. Even 2011/12 had multiple accumulating snowfalls by now.

Both 2006/07 and 2012/13 got better in Feb/Mar. 1997/98 was a suckfest all the way through, finished with < 1”. Hope to not repeat that.

The truth promets need to call for a warmer less snower winter then we will get hammered as there calls for cold snowy winters have not been to good.

[Slushy Inch]

GEFS sucks. I'll see everyone for 0z.

[Cold Snap]

Currently 48.1 after a low of 31. 40th freeze of the winter. Nice to see that we may see some flakes fall tomorrow!

[Doinko]

Not sure what's up with my weather app

 

[Kayla]

51 minutes ago, BLI snowman said:

Thanks. It is fully remote so it is definitely giving me some tempting relocation ideas, but we'll see as I get more acclimated.

SE AK would be fun. Ideal summer weather, long days and not hot!

Fully remote is ideal! My wife is fully remote which makes the SE AK idea a little more doable for the summer. 

Besides the scenery, avoiding the summer heat is honestly the big draw. I guess doing runs up and down to the Mendenhall Glacier will be cool too.

[Doinko]

Pretty cold today at PDX, 41/35. Next few weeks could put a decent dent in the positive departure for the month

[SouthHillFrosty]

The GEFS puts anything on life alert on late Jan 

[Slushy Inch]

15 minutes ago, SouthHillFrosty said:

The GEFS puts anything on life alert on late Jan 

GEFS has been very inconsistent compared to EPS.

[Doinko]

Does anyone have information on the 1/18-19/1960 snowstorm? Looks like a pretty great event. 6" of snow in Hillsboro with 32/25, 27/24 and 32/23 days. 

1959-1960 would be a winter I would 100% love. Cold all four months November to March with a cold January as well. Snowstorms in January and then historic cold and snow in early March. Looks like McMinnville did wonderful that winter.
19.5" of snow in January (11" from the 1/18 to 1/19 event) and then 11" from the snowstorm in early March. Total of 30.5" of snow there.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

3 hours ago, Phil said:

You know it’s been a loser winter when a 20 second snow flurry grabs your attention. Haha.

Literally the 3rd best snow “event” so far this winter here.  I’ve got maybe 0.1” total from all 3 snow showers combined.

Only other winters that were *this* bad (to date) in my lifetime are 1997/98, 2006/07, and 2012/13. Even 2011/12 had multiple accumulating snowfalls by now.

Both 2006/07 and 2012/13 got better in Feb/Mar. 1997/98 was a suckfest all the way through, finished with < 1”. Hope to not repeat that.

Keep whining. It worked for us in January 2019!

[NWbyNW]

Pretty blue hour/dusk.  Decided to wash my car . . . but I'm pretty sure it will all freeze over.  Oh well, it was brisk and the car looks shiny. 

[SouthHillFrosty]

Nice sunset today 

[AlTahoe]

3 hours ago, Phil said:

You know it’s been a loser winter when a 20 second snow flurry grabs your attention. Haha.

Literally the 3rd best snow “event” so far this winter here.  I’ve got maybe 0.1” total from all 3 snow showers combined.

Only other winters that were *this* bad (to date) in my lifetime are 1997/98, 2006/07, and 2012/13. Even 2011/12 had multiple accumulating snowfalls by now.

Both 2006/07 and 2012/13 got better in Feb/Mar. 1997/98 was a suckfest all the way through, finished with < 1”. Hope to not repeat that.

Your guys warmest winter was 1889-1890 if I remember correctly. That winter was called the white death out this way which we are currently matching. 

[MossMan]

56 minutes ago, SouthHillFrosty said:

The GEFS puts anything on life alert on late Jan 

The GFS needs a Life Alert pendant! 

 

[Meatyorologist]

26 minutes ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

Keep whining. It worked for us in January 2019!

And whine we did. Reading back through those threads is pure gold

[Cascadia_Wx]

1 hour ago, Doinko said:

Pretty cold today at PDX, 41/35. Next few weeks could put a decent dent in the positive departure for the month

Ended up with a 39/31 day here. Pretty chilly, coldest day in almost four weeks. Clouds aren’t clearing as much this evening though so we might have trouble pulling off another freeze.

[TacomaWx]

46/34 today. 

[AbbyJr]

Hey, does anyone on here have a link to where I can see the 500 mb pattern reanalysis by MJO/ENSO phase and month? Thanks so much. 

[BLI snowman]

24 minutes ago, Doinko said:

Does anyone have information on the 1/18-19/1960 snowstorm? Looks like a pretty great event. 6" of snow in Hillsboro with 32/25, 27/24 and 32/23 days. 

1959-1960 would be a winter I would 100% love. Cold all four months November to March with a cold January as well. Snowstorms in January and then historic cold and snow in early March. Looks like McMinnville did wonderful that winter.
19.5" of snow in January (11" from the 1/18 to 1/19 event) and then 11" from the snowstorm in early March. Total of 30.5" of snow there.

That was a great winter for NW OR and SW WA. Very gorge-centric with the Columbia Basin staying locked in the cold through much of the season and a great tap for the Portland area. A good example of the upper range of our potential in a season without a major upper level event.

The Portland metro had four different snowstorms in January, first a wet dump with an anafront on the 8th, and then two modest overrunning events on the 10th and 14th in the low level gorge outflow that hung around afterwards. There was really good low level cold air advection drawn in through the gorge ahead of the big storm on the 18th-19th, but it was extremely borderline up top. Thicknesses were around 530 for NW OR. There was a really big high pressure center in the Rockies but no significant arctic airmass to work with, so working a major snowstorm out of it was pretty remarkable.

https://meteocentre.com/reanalyses/get_reanalyses.php?lang=en&mod=ncep&area=na&yyyy=1960&mm=01&dd=19&run=12

That season also bookended by two historic blocking episodes. First with a big North American airmass in mid November 1959 which was actually fairly historic for so early in the season, but was overshadowed by its timing in the record books and coinciding with the 1955 event. SEA had a subfreezing afternoon high with the arctic front on the 15th, and BLI had a daytime high of 23.

Then the blocking episode from February 20 to March 15, 1960 was probably among the most extreme on record for North America. We cashed in during the early stage of it of course, first with a backdoor clipping in late February and then regionally with the really massive airmass in early March. Whereas the PNW modified fairly soon after the big overrunning storm on the 3rd, the East had one of its snowiest and most anomalous stretches on record. For example, in Lexington, KY that month was a full 5F colder than any other March back to 1888. Kind of was their mini-equivalent to January 1950.

[Phil]

4 minutes ago, AbbyJr said:

Hey, does anyone on here have a link to where I can see the 500 mb pattern reanalysis by MJO/ENSO phase and month? Thanks so much. 

https://www.atmos.albany.edu/facstaff/roundy/waves/rmmcyc/index200reg.html

[Meatyorologist]

2 hours ago, LowerGarfield said:

My wife's still mad about the fun snow we got in April due to messing with her plants.

Imagine witnessing the wonderful strangeness of the natural world and getting bummed out about it.

[TT-SEA]

6 minutes ago, Meatyorologist said:

Imagine witnessing the wonderful strangeness of the natural world and getting bummed out about it.

June 2021.

[Anti Marine Layer]

2 hours ago, Kayla said:

Fully remote is ideal! My wife is fully remote which makes the SE AK idea a little more doable for the summer. 

Besides the scenery, avoiding the summer heat is honestly the big draw. I guess doing runs up and down to the Mendenhall Glacier will be cool too.

Average high of 64 in July

[Meatyorologist]

3 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

June 2021.

Snow in April is a modestly rare, funny quirk of living at our latitude. June 2021 was an abomination of a weather pattern, and its magnitude would not have been possible without anthropogenic influence. Hardly "natural" or "wonderful".

[TigerWoodsLibido]

38F/31F for our first sub-40F high since Dec 23.

[Timmy Supercell]

3 minutes ago, TigerWoodsLibido said:

38F/31F for our first sub-40F high since Dec 23.

I assume no sub-32's there since 1/13/2017 still  

[Meatyorologist]

I joined here in January 2019! At the end of the month, right when we began to understand what we were truly dealing with.

[TacomaWx]

4 minutes ago, Timmy Supercell said:

I assume no sub-32's there since 1/13/2017 still  

Woah it’s Timmy! He actually pulled off a sub freezing high in December finally! 

[AbbyJr]

40 minutes ago, Phil said:

https://www.atmos.albany.edu/facstaff/roundy/waves/rmmcyc/index200reg.html

Thanks Phil.

[TT-SEA]

12 minutes ago, Meatyorologist said:

Snow in April is a modestly rare, funny quirk of living at our latitude. June 2021 was an abomination of a weather pattern, and its magnitude would not have been possible without anthropogenic influence. Hardly "natural" or "wonderful".

Your post definitely was a little ironic.   I am pretty sure we would have all time records with that heat spike even if it happened 100 years ago.   Just not quite as extreme.  

[Timmy Supercell]

2 minutes ago, TacomaWx said:

Woah it’s Timmy! He actually pulled off a sub freezing high in December finally! 

I achieved a 6-hour high of 3 in the afternoon of Dec 23rd. Ignore the 40's at midnight, the entrance of that front was just poorly timed.

It looks like I did have a 31 on 12/8/2021 but I wouldn't say we had any arctic air that month. Lots of 50's to near 70 throughout that one. 

[Meatyorologist]

2 minutes ago, Terreboner2 said:

And I watched a heavy convergence zone turn rain to almost snow in June of '06 in Lake Stevens.  I would call it a slushy trace on the garbage cans.  Amazing what weather can do!!

[TacomaWx]

D**n josh he’s calling you out 

[joelgombiner]

Off-topic: does anyone here study or have thoughts on PNW paleoclimate from 20,000 to 10,000 years ago (i.e. during the last glaciation and deglaciation)? 

[TacomaWx]

9 minutes ago, Terreboner2 said:

Could care less.  He wasn't there.

Maybe you’re getting the year wrong? June 1st and 2nd 2006 here were both 66/55 temp spreads here respectively. I just don’t see how that’s even possible in June to be completely honest. 

[MossMan]

I rather enjoyed June 2021. But I love extreme weather events, and I have A/C. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

I was in San Diego and missed June 2021. Fortunate timing. 

[Meatyorologist]

5 minutes ago, Terreboner2 said:

It happened.  Guarantee it.

It dropped down to about 40 degrees before it stopped but I was there.  I swear on my grandparent's grave.  Might have been June 1st or 2nd but it happened.  It's the best I can remember.

Are you sure you're thinking of June? That just isn't really possible in the lowlands as far as I can tell. Besides, it definitely wasn't 2006.. That was a warm June and hardly any cold airmasses of any stature found themselves at home here. If there is any recent year you are referencing, it would be June 2008. The first half of that month beats out any June in recorded history in terms of lowest average temperature. And there were a couple of real raw, springlike days thrown in there. A couple of lows of 44F at KSEA with precip recorded on both days... I could surmise that a particularly potent PSCZ right over Newcastle could drop snow levels enough for the slightest of mixing around 1000-1500 feet. Maybe. But that's a perfect case scenario.

[MossMan]

16 minutes ago, Terreboner2 said:

Could care less.  He wasn't there.

So you do care! 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

SWS just dropped here this afternoon.

Quote

3:55 PM PST Friday 20 January 2023
Special weather statement in effect for:

• Metro Vancouver - central including the City of Vancouver Burnaby and New Westminster
• Metro Vancouver - North Shore including West Vancouver and North Vancouver
• Metro Vancouver - northeast including Coquitlam and Maple Ridge
• Metro Vancouver - southeast including Surrey and Langley
• Metro Vancouver - southwest including Richmond and Delta

Snowfall over higher terrain on Saturday.

Where: Metro Vancouver, western and central Fraser Valley.

When: Saturday morning to afternoon.

Snowfall accumulation: Up to 5 cm over higher terrain.

Remarks: A cold front will move onto the BC south coast on Saturday bringing rain beginning in the morning. Rain may change to snow for parts of the Lower Mainland as temperatures remain cool during the course of the day.

Locations above 200 metres in elevation will most likely see snowfall accumulation of 2 to 5 cm. Closer to sea level, no significant accumulation is expected but there may be wet snow falling at times. The rain or snow will taper off Saturday evening behind the cold front.

Be prepared to adjust your driving with changing road conditions.

Please continue to monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada. To report severe weather, send an email to BCstorm@ec.gc.ca or tweet reports using #BCStorm.