PNW January 2023 Observations and Discussion

[MossMan]

A little snow…

Touchdown Seahawks! January has been saved! 

[TT-SEA]

ECMWF shows it stays basically dry down here until Friday morning... and the low clouds don't come back until then either except for the far northern areas like Vancouver Island and up around Bellingham and SW BC.    The clouds over the next 3 days are just at the mid and high level down here with maybe some filtered sun at times.

[LowerGarfield]

24F outside and yesterday was subfreezing but no frost. DP is probably very low.

[MossMan]

Things turning white! 31.6 degrees. 

[FrozenBites]

Snowing in Sumner/Puyallup area. Glazing the surfaces. 

[SnowySeeker50]

Roads starting to turn white

[ShawniganLake]

Had another burst of snow roll through. A little over 1.5” now.   January is saved. 

[TT-SEA]

Still snowing up in Bellingham... and the cloud bases look way lower than down here.  

[Blizzard777]

Federal Way concurs with current events of a white dusting and “It’s Happening”! 
 

32* with a low of 29* that occurred at 3:59am

[Rubus Leucodermis]

A nice little dusting IMBY. Still coming down lightly.

[TacomaWx]

Kent 

[T-Town]

IT’S SNOWING!!!!!!

[SnowWillarrive]

Light snow falling here. January going out with a bang 

[ShawniganLake]

[TacomaWx]

30 minutes ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

A trace is not considered measurable.

Well yeah but it kinda counts. 

[TacomaWx]

4 minutes ago, T-Town said:

IT’S SNOWING!!!!!!

My brother sent me a video a few minutes ago and there’s a dusting at home. 

[TT-SEA]

3 minutes ago, ShawniganLake said:

Wow... impressive!   

And it might be garbage day in case you forgot. 

[T-Town]

3 minutes ago, TacomaWx said:

Well yeah but it kinda counts. 

We don’t play by the rules here in Tacoma. Rules are for suckers. 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

2 minutes ago, TacomaWx said:

Well yeah but it kinda counts. 

Of course it does. Should have left out “measurable” and just said “… not bad to get snow in November, December and January.”

[T-Town]

Just now, TacomaWx said:

My brother sent me a video a few minutes ago and there’s a dusting at home. 

Nice. Just started a few minutes ago here but it’s coming down nicely. 

[SouthHillFrosty]

Solid dusting now!

[TT-SEA]

There is snow on the ground at SEA as well.     Just a couple random snowflakes here... assuming the air is drier out here this morning.  

 

[TonyP]

Decent little flurry in downtown Tacoma. It’s even sticking!

[MossMan]

No longer a dry blast! Down to 30.8 degrees. 

[TT-SEA]

6 minutes ago, SouthHillFrosty said:

Solid dusting now!

So this is the second time in 3 days that you have done better than my area... very cool!  

[TacomaWx]

9 minutes ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

Of course it does. Should have left out “measurable” and just said “… not bad to get snow in November, December and January.”

Thanks NWS official. 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

Given that the models I was looking at forecast amounts down to 0.2 cm (which is basically just a skiff), and how only a few outliers showed anything as far south as Seattle, I would say that yes, the models missed this one for the Seattle metro area.

[TT-SEA]

4 minutes ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

Given that the models I was looking at forecast amounts down to 0.2 cm (which is basically just a skiff), and how only a few outliers showed anything as far south as Seattle, I would say that yes, the models missed this one for the Seattle metro area.

The south Sound area is actually doing better than places to the north of there.    The east side of Seattle and up through Everett/Marysville looks pretty much dry.     The models were very close... but I think slightly higher dewpoints helped out in SW King County and northern Pierce County in terms of precip reaching the ground.  

[TacomaWx]

Tacoma

[Doinko]

Just now, TT-SEA said:

The south Sound area is actually doing better than places to the north of there.    The east side of Seattle and up through Everett/Marysville looks pretty much dry.     The models were very close... but I think slightly higher dewpoints helped out in SW King County and northern Pierce County in terms of precip reaching the ground.  

I remember people being worried about the south Sound donut hole on some runs in late November. Been kind of the opposite since!

[TacomaWx]

1 minute ago, TT-SEA said:

The south Sound area is actually doing better than places to the north of there.    The east side of Seattle and up through Everett/Marysville looks pretty much dry.     The models were very close... but I think slightly higher dewpoints helped out in SW King County and northern Pierce County.

I had a feeling last night this was gonna be an over performer. Snowing good in Kent currently but it shouldn’t last too much longer

[TT-SEA]

Just now, Doinko said:

I remember people being worried about the south Sound donut hole on some runs in late November. Been kind of the opposite since!

In certain situations that area actually does better... good examples on Saturday and this morning.  

[MossMan]

Just got to work, the roads were covered with the dry light blowy around snow. 

[VancouverIslandSouth]

10 minutes ago, MossMan said:

No longer a dry blast! Down to 30.8 degrees. 

Another snowy January. Got to celebrate the wins.

[snow_wizard]

We have a little dusting here now.  Certainly cold enough for every flake to stick.

[Deweydog]

[snow_wizard]

The GFS keeps the MJO wave quite a bit stronger than the ECMWF.  If the GFS is right we should do fine next month.  With MJO the GEFS and EPS have about the same skill.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

1 minute ago, snow_wizard said:

The GFS keeps the MJO wave quite a bit stronger than the ECMWF.  If the GFS is right we should do fine next month.  With MJO the GEFS and EPS have about the same skill.

Wow, you are almost up there with Phil in that post when it comes to acronym density.

[TT-SEA]

1 minute ago, snow_wizard said:

The GFS keeps the MJO wave quite a bit stronger than the ECMWF.  If the GFS is right we should do fine next month.  With MJO the GEFS and EPS have about the same skill.

Late February.   

Interestingly following the cycle of cold/snowy weather towards the end of each month this winter.  

[Seattle]

Decent amount of snow covering favored and untreated surfaces in Rainier Valley of Seattle. Very nice little surprise.