Part II- January 2020 Obs and Discussion

[wxmet]

Looks like it might be building a little behind Seattle?

Yup.

[bainbridgekid]

KPAE down to 30 with visibility of half a mile.

[Bham_Guy]

Light snow in Blaine right now.

[kokaneekidz]

I think this is going to end up like a nor'easter West coast style

[MR.SNOWMIZER]

That dry hole around Olympia might be downslope drying. It looks like upslope starting to happen on the olympics.

[tjb723]

Steady snow beginning to mix with graupel at my location, I think anyway. Temperature has been steady at 32.4/32.5 since today's event began around 12:30. Easily another 2+ inches out there. Tree branches really starting to sag. Hoping the forecasted change to rain never happens! Central Kitsap schools have been closed all week and I highly doubt they'll be able to open tomorrow without any rain to help melt what we've received.

 

Over 10" since Sunday here. 

[GHweatherChris]

It's a monster!!

 

[TT-SEA]

ECMWF is on track... it showed this band moving through this afternoon with better accumulations north of Seattle.   The second band looks weaker on the ECMWF with precip more focused west of the Sound.    It shows temps warming up this evening to around 40 in Seattle by midnight.   And it shows a band of precip moving from west to east early tomorrow morning after the low has moved well north and that could have some wet snow probably because of timing in the early morning.

[GHweatherChris]

Moderate snow again.

[bainbridgekid]

Picked up 1.5" here in an hour from that first band. Gone to light snow now and I think that may be it for the day here unless that band down SW of Olympia can impact our area again this evening.

 

Nice to see heavy snow falling during the day! Season snowfall now also at exactly 10 inches here which feels nice.

[seattleweatherguy]

Light snow here

[TT-SEA]

Picked up 1.5" here in an hour from that first band. Gone to light snow now and I think that may be it for the day here unless that band down SW of Olympia can impact our area again this evening.

 

Nice to see heavy snow falling during the day!

You just keep winning!

 

 

Side note... wind just kicked in here. No accumulation with that band.

[seattleweatherguy]

ECMWF is on track... it showed this band moving through this afternoon with better accumulations north of Seattle. The second band looks weaker on the ECMWF with precip more focused west of the Sound. It shows temps warming up this evening to around 40 in Seattle by midnight. And it shows a band of precip moving from west to east early tomorrow morning after the low has moved well north and that could have some wet snow probably because of timing in the early morning.

So it won’t rain until perhaps tomorrow?

[GHweatherChris]

This cold front is lacking, back to light snow.

[MikeInEverett]

Also about 1.5” new here. That was an intense hour or so.

[TT-SEA]

Easterly gradient now up to -17mb.

 

Someone on Twitter said North Bend Elementary gusted to 49mph per Weatherbug - not sure how accurate that is. Other than that though, still not really seeing any gusts that support the gradient.

 

Euro said the winds should be peaking by 4/5PM and it showed gusts up to or crossing 50mph on I-90 at 3PM.

That might be accurate... that station is pretty good. Sometimes the wind in the valley is much more extreme than here... there has been nothing that strong here though.

[Randyc321]

Look at Jaya recent tweet. Another band later?

Look at the wrap around band coming past the south end of the Olympics.  It is what is giving GHweatherChris snow right now.  Looks juicy. Its feeding North but right now slamming into the mountains.  It should start coming up the Peninsula soon and maybe over Sea. That is what I see on the radar.

[GHweatherChris]

Look at the wrap around band coming past the south end of the Olympics. It is what is giving GHweatherChris snow right now. Looks juicy. Its feeding North but right now slamming into the mountains. It should start coming up the Peninsula soon and maybe over Sea. That is what I see on the radar.

It is not as intense as the radar shows, so far, might have better dynamics the further inland it tracks.

[MikeInEverett]

Temp went down to 30 here. Very happy with today. Was expecting mid to upper 30s and slop.

[Randyc321]

That dry hole around Olympia might be downslope drying. It looks like upslope starting to happen on the olympics.

 

I just posted about that in an amateur sort of way      I think you are about to get dumped on.

[Randyc321]

It's a monster!!

 

Screenshot_20200115-150537_Chrome.jpg

 

Yep.  That's the one I am waiting to come up my way.  Snowmizers gonna get it good from this one.

[GHweatherChris]

This is the best day of this week by far!! (For me)

[Randyc321]

ECMWF is on track... it showed this band moving through this afternoon with better accumulations north of Seattle.   The second band looks weaker on the ECMWF with precip more focused west of the Sound.    It shows temps warming up this evening to around 40 in Seattle by midnight.   And it shows a band of precip moving from west to east early tomorrow morning after the low has moved well north and that could have some wet snow probably because of timing in the early morning.

 

Can you show us what the west sound might look like from 4 pm - 4 am?

 

I would like to see the colors, please.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

This is a dynamic front with all that cold air feeding in behind it. Some major temperature drops along the Central Oregon coast along with thunderstorms. North Bend on the Southern Oregon coast has dropped from 50 at noon to 41 on the 3pm hour. 1 1/3KM WRF drops the snow level to around 500' in the Central Valley tonight as the front hangs up along the Cascades. This map seems a little overdone, but its fun to look at. 

 

[runninthruda206]

Band building. Should hit metro soon hopefully

[TT-SEA]

Can you show us what the west sound might look like from 4 pm - 4 am?

 

I would like to see the colors, please.

 

[Thurston Howell III]

Nephew in Buckley estimates 40mph gusts.  He's pretty accurate and lives in the area that gets the insane winds.  Has weather station.  It's 37 with really dry air.  So that hole probably is downslope wind effected.

[Omegaraptor]

1 1/3KM WRF drops the snow level to around 500' in the Central Valley tonight as the front hangs up along the Cascades.

Whoa, 500’ snow levels in Sacramento and Fresno?

[GHweatherChris]

My fun for today is over, Hoquiam reporting rain and zero precip here, but D**n it was fun earlier!!

[jcmcgaffey]

I thought none of the precip from this storm today was going to make it to Seattle due to the strong offshore flow:)

[seattleweatherguy]

Whoa, 500’ snow levels in Sacramento and Fresno?

That’s impressive

[Omegaraptor]

That’s impressive

I was joking. Silverfallsandrew was referring to the central Willamette Valley, but “Central Valley” also refers to California’s Central Valley.

[TigerWoodsLibido]

Super nasty and rainy out there now. Down to 45F.

[TT-SEA]

Easterly gradient now up to -17mb.

 

Someone on Twitter said North Bend Elementary gusted to 49mph per Weatherbug - not sure how accurate that is. Other than that though, still not really seeing any gusts that support the gradient. 

 

Euro said the winds should be peaking by 4/5PM and it showed gusts up to or crossing 50mph on I-90 at 3PM. GFS said gusts would only reach about 35mph, which seems to be more in line with at least a couple stations. Depending on how this next hour or so goes, I might have given the GFS too much grief this morning.

 

Live view from North Bend... it does not look that windy there.   There is still snow on the trees.  

 

[Blizzard777]

We’re doing everything we can South Sound to keep this week a none event so Portland doesn’t feel left out. We’ve done a pretty good job at accomplishing that goal but today i was very worried  with the intrusion of moisture and seeing a few snowflakes.  Anyhow, East winds figured it out and created a nice hole around us.  Good to know we have the Olympics to our west and dry wind from East protecting us at all times.

36.4*

26* dp

[Blizzard777]

Absolutely dumping snow here.

 

Nearest cam shows I-5 getting snow covered.

 

005vc18748.jpg

I WANT THIS!

[TT-SEA]

I thought none of the precip from this storm today was going to make it to Seattle due to the strong offshore flow:)

 

 

Never showed none... but it always looked limited.

[Poulsbo Snowman]

Think some areas will need to be concerned about flooding on Friday into Saturday.  Very significant rise in snow levels.  May even rain at Snoqualmie unless that east wind keeps it cold enough.

[FroYoBro]

Looks like pdx might turn back to snow with this heavy band. Only 36 there with a low dew point there.

 

45 degrees here. 

[Deweydog]

Looks like pdx might turn back to snow with this heavy band. Only 36 there with a low dew point there.

 

45 degrees here.

Mid levels are way too warm at this point.