PNW March 2023 Weather Discussion (2012 Redux)

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Can't even describe how satisfied I am with how this winter turned out. Could have had more arctic air, could have had more snow in Dec/Jan, but no complaints. Ready for classic spring weather. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Up to 30.5" on the month, within striking distance of March 2012, though next weekends trough doesn't really look like it has that kind of potential. At this point maybe a couple inches, but nothing like this current trough. We have done it in a very different way than 2012 though. 

[Winterdog]

2 hours ago, TT-SEA said:

No snow here.     Some blue sky overhead and 34. 

Nothing at all here either.  The snow line on the foothills shows snow at about 1000'.  This has been a frustrating winter where living well east of the Sound and at some elevation hasn't seemed to help much.  Last night I had plenty of fairly heavy precipitation but never any snow.  38F after a low of 35F.

[Slushy Inch]

3 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Can't even describe how satisfied I am with how this winter turned out. Could have had more arctic air, could have had more snow in Dec/Jan, but no complaints. Ready for classic spring weather. 

Ready for thunderstorms!

[TT-SEA]

Just now, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Up to 30.5" on the month, within striking distance of March 2012, though next weekends trough doesn't really look like it has that kind of potential. At this point maybe a couple inches, but nothing like this current trough. We have done it in a very different way than 2012 though. 

The difference between this year and 2012 is also striking in the middle part of the country.    My relatives have been wistfully posting memories from 2012 when the ice was out on the lakes and the trees were leafing out at this point and MSP had already reached 80 degrees.   This year there is still snow cover and more on the way and the ice on the lakes is still very thick.

[MossMan]

Not warming up very quickly, only at 35.0 so far. 
.25” of precip through the gauge (with more to melt it looks like) 4.70” for the month,  14.66” for the year. 

[MossMan]

Everyone ready for the latest version of my deck snow pile update!!

[TacomaWx]

All the way up in Marysville for work today after being in Redmond. Haven’t seen any snow. I’ll be over at Randy’s house soon with an industrial grade blowtorch to melt his snow. If nobody else got snow he can’t have any either. 

[MossMan]

5 minutes ago, Winterdog said:

Nothing at all here either.  The snow line on the foothills shows snow at about 1000'.  This has been a frustrating winter where living well east of the Sound and at some elevation hasn't seemed to help much.  Last night I had plenty of fairly heavy precipitation but never any snow.  38F after a low of 35F.

I figured you would have seen something early this morning…

[Slushy Inch]

4 minutes ago, TacomaWx said:

All the way up in Marysville for work today after being in Redmond. Haven’t seen any snow. I’ll be over at Randy’s house soon with an industrial grade blowtorch to melt his snow. If nobody else got snow he can’t have any either. 

Just drive up a hill and find some snow, snow get pretty low in elevation but didn’t accumulate.

[The Cats Meow]

The pattern looks to continue.  Nice little warm up for a few days and then back to a chillier pattern.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

17 minutes ago, Slushy Inch said:

Ready for thunderstorms!

We also had thunderstorms Wednesday-Friday. Can't remember the last time we had 3 days in a row with thunder. 

[AlTahoe]

34 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Can't even describe how satisfied I am with how this winter turned out. Could have had more arctic air, could have had more snow in Dec/Jan, but no complaints. Ready for classic spring weather. 

Our grandparents talked about the winter of 1951-1952, Our parents talked about the winter of  1968-1969 for the Sierra. We get to talk about the winter of 2022-2023. It's been exhausting but amazing to witness 

[Deweydog]

Walter lamenting our lack of late March snow cover.

[Phil]

Good grief.

 

[AlTahoe]

1 minute ago, Phil said:

Good grief.

 

Wild footage. I can't imagine the destruction that would be seen if something like Joplin went through a major downtown like Dallas. 

[TT-SEA]

27 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

We also had thunderstorms Wednesday-Friday. Can't remember the last time we had 3 days in a row with thunder. 

Is this more snow for you tonight on the 12Z ECMWF?

[SilverFallsAndrew]

GEM and GFS still onboard for the trough next weekend. GFS is nice in the long range too. 

[Slushy Inch]

29 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

We also had thunderstorms Wednesday-Friday. Can't remember the last time we had 3 days in a row with thunder. 

Just didn’t get any in western WA

[SilverFallsAndrew]

1 minute ago, TT-SEA said:

Is this more snow for you tonight on the 12Z ECMWF?

Looks like it, or maybe its this afternoon? Nice blob of moisture moving in right now, though the snow has been pretty light so far. 32 degrees. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Burns hit 13 this morning. Ties a record low from 1996. Currently 25 with light snow, min/max of 34 up for grabs today. 

[Doinko]

3 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Is this more snow for you tonight on the 12Z ECMWF?

Bit more for PDX too. What are temps like with most of the snow?

[TT-SEA]

1 minute ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Looks like it, or maybe its this afternoon? Nice blob of moisture moving in right now, though the snow has been pretty light so far. 32 degrees. 

Quite sunny here and 42... and looks like we are done with any significant moisture from this system.  

Good catch on the snow map.   I looked at the 24-hour period from 5 p.m. today to 5 p.m. tomorrow and it looks like most of that snow is this afternoon.

 

[TT-SEA]

2 minutes ago, Doinko said:

Bit more for PDX too. What are temps like with most of the snow?

Looks like the snow for PDX is early tomorrow morning... ECMWF shows temps in the mid 30s at that time.  

[Slushy Inch]

Still out there but next trough looks a little stronger and a more direct hit. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

3 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Quite sunny here and 42... and looks like we are done with any significant moisture from this system.  

Good catch on the snow map.   I looked at the 24-hour period from 5 p.m. today to 5 p.m. tomorrow and it looks like most of that snow is this afternoon.

 

Still maybe an inch overnight, but yeah if you look at the radar there is a pretty big blob of moisture moving very slowly that will be producing snow well into the afternoon. Pretty light so far, so not sure how much we will accumulate during peak heating. Should help keep temps down. Min/max at the park today is 39, should be a slam dunk. 

[Slushy Inch]

1 minute ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Still maybe an inch overnight, but yeah if you look at the radar there is a pretty big blob of moisture moving very slowly that will be producing snow well into the afternoon. Pretty light so far, so not sure how much we will accumulate during peak heating. Should help keep temps down. Min/max at the park today is 39, should be a slam dunk. 

You seem so to do well for being at 1600 feet.

[TT-SEA]

ECMWF shows partly to mostly sunny conditions tomorrow and Monday for western WA and then lots of sun on Tuesday with that distinct south-north gradient again.    Might have to make time on Tuesday to be out working in the yard.  

 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

4 minutes ago, Slushy Inch said:

You seem so to do well for being at 1600 feet.

We have had a lot of patterns that favor our area this year. There have been many years where Tim gets significantly more snow than us, cold onshore flow is our bread and butter, and the troughing has dug very well this year and erased any kind of N/S gradient. It really matters how cold the airmass is here, sub-528 thickness with moderate precip rates is always going to be snow. 

I can tell you too, there is a massive difference between even 1400' and 1600', there are many times I can have 6-10" of snow on the ground and drive 2-3 miles and there is nothing. 

[TT-SEA]

We have some rhodies blooming across the road from our house.   This is the early blooming variety and they are late this year.  But I thought they were dead last fall from the heat so it's nice to see they are still alive.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

6 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

ECMWF shows partly to mostly sunny conditions tomorrow and Monday for western WA and then lots of sun on Tuesday with that distinct south-north gradient again.    Might have to make time on Tuesday to be out working in the yard.  

 

By Tuesday the average high at SLE is 59, so this represents a well below normal day down south. Burns looks to have a high 22 degrees below average, that would also smash a min/max for them too if it verifies. 

[Cold Snap]

4 hours ago, TT-SEA said:

No snow here.     Some blue sky overhead and 34. 

Im surprised you didn’t get snow from this and I did. Must have been the CZ placement.

[Slushy Inch]

1 minute ago, TT-SEA said:

We have some rhodies blooming across the road from our house.   This is the early blooming variety and they are late this year.  But I thought they were dead last fall from the heat so it's nice to see they are still alive.

It sure was weird seeing leaves just wrinkle up and die from the heat. Once in a lifetime heatwave.

[TT-SEA]

1 minute ago, Slushy Inch said:

It sure was weird seeing leaves just wrinkle up and die from the heat. Once in a lifetime heatwave.

The leaves still don't look right... sort of a yellowish color.  

[TT-SEA]

3 minutes ago, Cold Snap said:

Im surprised you didn’t get snow from this and I did. Must have been the CZ placement.

Yeah... mentioned this earlier but being on the south fringe of the c-zone is a bad spot because of a persistent south wind.   Lots of 36 degree drizzle yesterday evening.

[TT-SEA]

5 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

By Tuesday the average high at SLE is 59, so this represents a well below normal day down south. Burns looks to have a high 22 degrees below average, that would also smash a min/max for them too if it verifies. 

Yeah... not saying its really warm but going to be a beautiful day up here for yard work.  

[Cold Snap]

1 hour ago, TacomaWx said:

All the way up in Marysville for work today after being in Redmond. Haven’t seen any snow. I’ll be over at Randy’s house soon with an industrial grade blowtorch to melt his snow. If nobody else got snow he can’t have any either. 

I got some snow! It’s mostly melted now though.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Light snow and 32, but the trees also starting to shed snow as the late March sun angles do their thing. Sky is fairly bright. 

[Doinko]

1 hour ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Can't even describe how satisfied I am with how this winter turned out. Could have had more arctic air, could have had more snow in Dec/Jan, but no complaints. Ready for classic spring weather. 

I agree, definitely a great winter. Cool November, with some snow in the air at the end, a lot of snow in the air in early December. Then the arctic blast in December, which we had a 23/20 day with here. And I got to experience that arctic blast in Denver which was amazing, going from hiking in 50 degree weather to 4" snow falling below zero degrees F and a temp in the minus 20s in less than 24 hours.

February/March has had a ton of snow falling which has been really nice. Started with about a half inch on 2/14, then the 6-8" storm on 2/22 and 2/23 which mostly fell in the mid 20s. Then snow in the air on 2/25, 2/28, 3/7, 3/9, 3/24, and today. I measured 7.5" of snow total this winter but I doubt I got a proper measurement on 2/23 so it's probably slightly more.

2016/2017 was better here since it was colder/snowier but I've really liked this winter too. Also my first winter on the forum and it feels like there's been something to track almost constantly

[TT-SEA]

Next meaningful precip up here is not until Friday night on the 12Z ECMWF.   That is almost a week away.   Pretty crazy.  

@LowerGarfield this runs delays precip enough that there shouldn't be any issues over the pass for either of us on Friday.