March 2024 Weather in the PNW

[Meatyorologist]

Just now, BLI snowman said:

It just hurts me to see so much nervously optimistic anticipation on the Eastern weather communities each and every fall. They need to give up the ghost already. George Washington ain't coming back and crossing the Delaware any time soon. 

2009-10 to them is their 1968-69. 2014-15 was also a banger, especially in February. They have a handful of great winters since the beginning of the century amidst a sea of nonexistent ones. At least we've only had a couple bonafide torches during DJF during that stretch, albeit no all time cold/snowy ones either.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

South of Portland this stretch has definitely lagged 2019. 
 

Winter will be better across the entire lower 48 next year. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

2 hours ago, Meatyorologist said:

Let's recap why Phil wants us to root against La Niña:

-La Niña will prevent La Niña from happening again, so in order to get La Niña we have to root against La Niña. So we can have more La Niña in the future. Makes sense.

-La Niña is actually an endothermic process which burns the Earth. I mean the effects of this warming aren't noticeable for centuries but think of how hard he just OWNED you with the Thermodynamics 101 lesson. But don't worry about CO2 emissions, we don't really understand that or something lmao

-If next winter is a La Niña he might CRY and that would make us feel bad  

I could be wrong, but I always thought Nina’s were always more common than Ninos.

[Cold Snap]

Imagine if this verified lol the entire country would be underwater.

[TT-SEA]

And PDX is at 77 on the hour... warmest day of this stretch now.     

[TT-SEA]

2 minutes ago, Cold Snap said:

Imagine if this verified lol the entire country would be underwater.

Not sure where he got that map... this is the 15-day totals on the ECMWF AIFS on WB.  

 

[Cold Snap]

8 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Not sure where he got that map... this is the 15-day totals on the ECMWF AIFS on WB.  

 

Apparently it was a glitch with Pivotal Weather that’s why it was showing that much.

[TacomaWx]

65/39 here today 

[MossMan]

What an amazing stretch it’s been…Saturday was 72, yesterday 68, and today 63! 

[Sunriver Snow Zone]

60 currently, 71/21 day. First 50 degree spread since October!

[SilverFallsAndrew]

1 hour ago, Sunriver Snow Zone said:

60 currently, 71/21 day. First 50 degree spread since October!

Wow. What a blessing. Time to hit up Odell lake for some Kokanee. 

[LowerGarfield]

2 hours ago, TT-SEA said:

Not sure where he got that map... this is the 15-day totals on the ECMWF AIFS on WB.  

 

Wouldn't mind the rain.

[TT-SEA]

15 minutes ago, LowerGarfield said:

Wouldn't mind the rain.

I really like rain after the first real warm spell of spring... kicks the vegetation into a higher gear.    As long as its not 38-degree lumpy rain.  

[Snowlova]

What are your guys’ thoughts on pass level snow this weekend? Want to ski again cuz I’m not quite mentally prepared for the torching of summer yet

[Sunriver Snow Zone]

43 minutes ago, Snowlova said:

What are your guys’ thoughts on pass level snow this weekend? Want to ski again cuz I’m not quite mentally prepared for the torching of summer yet

Sunday might be cold enough. Probably too warm for Snoqualmie, but stevens pass should be good if you're willing to drive a little extra.

 

I'm still baffled that there's a ski resort at less than 3k feet, there's too many days that are too warm at Snoqualmies low elevation. I'm glad that here in oregon they put ski resorts at places that should actually have a ski resort 

[DeepFriedEgg]

PDX peaked at 77F with a subpar ridge. March record high of 80F seems like low hanging fruit for future March torches.

[Sunriver Snow Zone]

31 currently, already down 40 degrees from the high of 71. Should get to maybe 20-24 tonight, good night!

[Phil]

6 hours ago, BLI snowman said:

Honestly, DCA is going to melt either way as the East Coast climate becomes increasingly subtropical up to Cape Cod or so. The weenie handwringing back there over ENSO state is an antiquated formality at this point. Snowy winters there are probably a thing of the past, and cold ones definitely are.

This winter was actually solid here. NYC/New England got screwed, but I don’t care about them.

Had 2 weeks of unbroken snowcover for the first time since 2015. Had nearly a foot on the ground at one point. And a full week of subfreezing temps kept it from melting during that timeframe.

Also had accumulating snow every month this winter. Last time that happened was 2019. So all in all, I’m content.

[ShawniganLake]

5 minutes ago, Phil said:

This winter was actually solid here. NYC/New England got screwed, but I don’t care about them.

Had 2 weeks of unbroken snowcover for the first time since 2015. Had nearly a foot on the ground at one point. And a full week of subfreezing temps kept it from melting during that timeframe.

Also had accumulating snow every month this winter. Last time that happened was 2019. So yes, I’m happy.

You hadn’t had 2 weeks of consecutive snow cover in nearly a decade .  That’s pretty pathetic.  We definitely have better winters here. 

[Snowlova]

1 hour ago, Sunriver Snow Zone said:

Sunday might be cold enough. Probably too warm for Snoqualmie, but stevens pass should be good if you're willing to drive a little extra.

 

I'm still baffled that there's a ski resort at less than 3k feet, there's too many days that are too warm at Snoqualmies low elevation. I'm glad that here in oregon they put ski resorts at places that should actually have a ski resort 

I’ve always thought that too. 3k is a tad low for this climate for consistent freezing temps. There’s places that are lower like whistler but that’s Canada

[Phil]

16 minutes ago, ShawniganLake said:

You hadn’t had 2 weeks of consecutive snow cover in nearly a decade .  That’s pretty pathetic.  We definitely have better winters here. 

This climate isn’t good for preserving snow cover. The 2016 blizzard dumped 34” of snow in 24hrs, but it was all gone inside 10 days.

Imagine, all this snow vanishing in 8-9 days. So sad.

[Meatyorologist]

12 minutes ago, Phil said:

This climate isn’t good for preserving snow cover. The 2016 blizzard dumped 34” of snow in 24hrs, but it was all gone inside 10 days.

Imagine, all this snow vanishing in 8-9 days. So sad.

Amazing. Couldn't imagine 34" of snow in a day. What a ride that would be. And I'm assuming the snowfall rates weren't a uniform 1.5"/hr or whatever... What did they peak at?

[Phil]

1 hour ago, Meatyorologist said:

Amazing. Couldn't imagine 34" of snow in a day. What a ride that would be. And I'm assuming the snowfall rates weren't a uniform 1.5"/hr or whatever... What did they peak at?

It was lit. Wish I could relive it.

Light snow began around 2pm in association w/ WAA/isentropic upglide, gradually intensified to moderate snow by sundown as the first frontogenic bands rotated in. No wind yet at this point, just completely dead calm and silent.

Then at ~ 10pm, frontogenic forcing and moisture advection went nuclear all of a sudden. In the blink of an eye it started puking snow at ~ 2”+/hr, along with frequent thunder/lightning and the first gusts of wind from the E/NE. The entire character of the storm changed in an instant. This went on until ~ 5AM, then we temporarily lulled back to light snow ahead of the ULL/deform pivot. Still a light NE wind at that point.

Then just after lunchtime, the deformation band pivoted overhead, and the true blizzard conditions began, with the highest rates and strongest winds of the storm. As winds quickly veered to the N/NW, the temperature dropped from 29°F to 21°F and snowfall rates increased to 3”+/hr. Lots of blowing/drifting snow. No thunder/lightning this time, but the conditions on the ground were more extreme than overnight. Ripped like crazy until 6-7pm, until the deform band pivoted off to the E/NE, at which point we fell back to light snow for the next 3 hours. Finally stopped snowing ~ 10PM.

NWS employee that lived a few miles away reported 37” as the grand total. My measurements were all over the place because of drifting, but the average was a bit over 34”. Though this doesn’t account for compaction, so maybe it would’ve been a little higher if I’d followed official measurement procedures.

All in all, an amazing storm. My 3rd favorite storm of all time, in fact (behind the 2/10/10 mega-blizzard and 2/6/10 snowmageddon that had occurred just days prior).

[Phil]

That afternoon deform band:

 

 

[Meatyorologist]

2 hours ago, Phil said:

It was lit. Wish I could relive it.

Light snow began around 2pm in association w/ WAA/isentropic upglide, gradually intensified to moderate snow by sundown as the first frontogenic bands rotated in. No wind yet at this point, just completely dead calm and silent.

Then at ~ 10pm, frontogenic forcing and moisture advection went nuclear all of a sudden. In the blink of an eye it started puking snow at ~ 2”+/hr, along with frequent thunder/lightning and the first gusts of wind from the E/NE. The entire character of the storm changed in an instant. This went on until ~ 5AM, then we temporarily lulled back to light snow ahead of the ULL/deform pivot. Still a light NE wind at that point.

Then just after lunchtime, the deformation band pivoted overhead, and the true blizzard conditions began, with the highest rates and strongest winds of the storm. As winds quickly veered to the N/NW, the temperature dropped from 29°F to 21°F and snowfall rates increased to 3”+/hr. Lots of blowing/drifting snow. No thunder/lightning this time, but the conditions on the ground were more extreme than overnight. Ripped like crazy until 6-7pm, until the deform band pivoted off to the E/NE, at which point we fell back to light snow for the next 3 hours. Finally stopped snowing ~ 10PM.

NWS employee that lived a few miles away reported 37” as the grand total. My measurements were all over the place because of drifting, but the average was a bit over 34”. Though this doesn’t account for compaction, so maybe it would’ve been a little higher if I’d followed official measurement procedures.

All in all, an amazing storm. My 3rd favorite storm of all time, in fact (behind the 2/10/10 mega-blizzard and 2/6/10 snowmageddon that had occurred just days prior).

"Third favorite snowstorm" this is why I'm rooting for La Niña

[Rubus Leucodermis]

Currently 38.8˚F after a max yesterday of 63.0.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

Dunno exactly how I would rank snowfalls, but the storm that dropped a foot here last January has to be somewhere in the top 10 list:

1. A nice surprise: wasn’t expecting something like it in an El Niño winter.
2. Also a nice surprise because it overperformed both my own expectations (I knew the official forecasts were being stingy) but even my own more generous forecast amounts (which got pooh-poohed as wishcasting on the Canadian forum).
3. Made it three winters in a row featuring a double-digit snowstorm (10" or better).
4. Highest snowfall rate I have seen on the West Coast: 6 cm in 30 minutes.

[Omegaraptor]

4 hours ago, Meatyorologist said:

"Third favorite snowstorm" this is why I'm rooting for La Niña

reminder that Phil lives barely above sea level at the same latitude as Sacramento

[westcoastexpat]

That week in December 2008 was probably my favourite. May be a cop out because it's not a single storm, but having three 8"+ dumps in a single week was pretty exciting.

[TacomaWx]

Got down to 38 this morning 50 now. Should make a run at 60 today. Had we hit 60 on Friday we might’ve done 5 +60 days in a row. 

[the_convergence_zone]

10 hours ago, Sunriver Snow Zone said:

Sunday might be cold enough. Probably too warm for Snoqualmie, but stevens pass should be good if you're willing to drive a little extra.

 

I'm still baffled that there's a ski resort at less than 3k feet, there's too many days that are too warm at Snoqualmies low elevation. I'm glad that here in oregon they put ski resorts at places that should actually have a ski resort 

It's almost always too warm for snow there except when there is an approaching warm front with cold air available on the east side of the Cascades. Which describes at least half of our winter weather systems. So it dumps feet of snow there with the snow level sitting at 2950 ft at the ski resort and 4500 ft just about everywhere else in the Cascades. 

The crazy thing is that Snoqualmie actually had better early season coverage than Crystal and Mt. Baker this year because picked up a few feet from their microclimate in early December while everyone else was seeing rain. And a high of 40 with December "sun" doesn't melt anything. I was up there around Christmas and it looked much better than I was expecting. 

The projections continue to indicate that there are about 20 years of skiing left at Snoqualmie before it gets too warm, but so far the 2014-15 winter was the only one where they didn't get enough snow to have a full season. 

[Sunriver Snow Zone]

41 currently, low of 21.

[bainbridgekid]

12 minutes ago, the_convergence_zone said:

It's almost always too warm for snow there except when there is an approaching warm front with cold air available on the east side of the Cascades. Which describes at least half of our winter weather systems. So it dumps feet of snow there with the snow level sitting at 2950 ft at the ski resort and 4500 ft just about everywhere else in the Cascades. 

The crazy thing is that Snoqualmie actually had better early season coverage than Crystal and Mt. Baker this year because picked up a few feet from their microclimate in early December while everyone else was seeing rain. And a high of 40 with December "sun" doesn't melt anything. I was up there around Christmas and it looked much better than I was expecting. 

The projections continue to indicate that there are about 20 years of skiing left at Snoqualmie before it gets too warm, but so far the 2014-15 winter was the only one where they didn't get enough snow to have a full season. 

04-05 and 09-10 were pretty awful there too. But overall I've been pleasantly surprised by how well they've continued to do. As you describe it really is amazing how often it's raining the entire drive up and then turns to snow right as you basically turn into the parking lot. One of the consistently more extreme microclimates I've ever experienced.

The cold East wind also helps preserve the snow long after they turn to rain as well. After a snowstorm it'll often stay under 35 at Snoqualmie for many hours while it's 42 and raining with a strong snow eating South wind at Baker and Crystal.

[the_convergence_zone]

8 hours ago, Phil said:

It was lit. Wish I could relive it.

Light snow began around 2pm in association w/ WAA/isentropic upglide, gradually intensified to moderate snow by sundown as the first frontogenic bands rotated in. No wind yet at this point, just completely dead calm and silent.

Then at ~ 10pm, frontogenic forcing and moisture advection went nuclear all of a sudden. In the blink of an eye it started puking snow at ~ 2”+/hr, along with frequent thunder/lightning and the first gusts of wind from the E/NE. The entire character of the storm changed in an instant. This went on until ~ 5AM, then we temporarily lulled back to light snow ahead of the ULL/deform pivot. Still a light NE wind at that point.

Then just after lunchtime, the deformation band pivoted overhead, and the true blizzard conditions began, with the highest rates and strongest winds of the storm. As winds quickly veered to the N/NW, the temperature dropped from 29°F to 21°F and snowfall rates increased to 3”+/hr. Lots of blowing/drifting snow. No thunder/lightning this time, but the conditions on the ground were more extreme than overnight. Ripped like crazy until 6-7pm, until the deform band pivoted off to the E/NE, at which point we fell back to light snow for the next 3 hours. Finally stopped snowing ~ 10PM.

NWS employee that lived a few miles away reported 37” as the grand total. My measurements were all over the place because of drifting, but the average was a bit over 34”. Though this doesn’t account for compaction, so maybe it would’ve been a little higher if I’d followed official measurement procedures.

All in all, an amazing storm. My 3rd favorite storm of all time, in fact (behind the 2/10/10 mega-blizzard and 2/6/10 snowmageddon that had occurred just days prior).

I experienced a couple of storms like that in Wisconsin although there's not enough moisture to go much above about 20" in one storm. We had a few in the 15-20" range with frequent lightning and wicked deformation zones. The blizzard of 1999 was always the top one for me but it happened to work out that when I was in the atmospheric science program in Madison there were a couple of really epic storms during the winter where Madison broke 100" of snow in a season for the first time on record ('07-'08).

At that time, the university hadn't closed for snow since the early 1990s, so they took it as a point of pride to keep the streak going and stay open for some really nasty storms. I remember once we trudged to class in the afternoon near the end of a 14" storm (although as met students we would have been there anyway to track the storm). They made it through the entire 100 inch winter without a closure, but then there was finally a huge storm in December 2009 with 18"+ forecasts that forced their hand. And they called the closure the night before, just as the snow was beginning to fall, so it resulted in a gigantic party. Good times! 

[iFred]

5 hours ago, Meatyorologist said:

"Third favorite snowstorm" this is why I'm rooting for La Niña

It's my third favorite too.

The month of Nor'easters in March 2018 is my favorite winter event of all time, followed by December 2008, followed by the Blizzard of 16, followed by the Ice Storm of 96 followed by November 2006 (that whole winter was fun), followed by November 2010, followed by the weekend storm of January 2012.

In my early twenties I would get sent into a little bit of a spiral thinking how if you go onto WeatherSpark, you could visualize the dozens of times that Seattle saw more than three inches of snow recorded on any day since 1980. It made me think that living out here, I would statistically would only see a regional multi day event once every fifteen years. Throw in all of the smaller events, it amounted to three weeks of snow cover for every ten years (I did the math on a spreadsheet back in 2010 or 2011 and cant find it). Add in some variance by including days where the high was 37º and under, you were looking at 45 days of solid winter for every ten years, 60 if you did sub-40º. In that period of "artistic" obsession, I found that Chuckanut Mountains served as a divide for climate, plant hardiness, average snow school days, and total snowfall. It seemed that every value that I valued for winter had doubled, the number of days below 40º, the number of days with snow on the ground, the number of BC licence plates in the Costco parking lot, all doubled. As a single man, living by himself, and working nights in tech, I had days and days to pour over these spreadsheets trying to optimize where I should live in Western Washington to get the most amount of snow and cold in the winter. Then I snapped.

Our climate in the lowlands is capable of those top tier storms that will even get Jim Cantore to risk his life to come out here and stand on the Pine St overpass in Seattle has heavy flakes come down. One read of Storm King and you get the idea why. That said, I have learned to love and embrace our landscape and climate as is. It is pretty unique and worthwhile in its own right. We have some of the most amazing rainstorms, giving us an opportunity to sit by a window with a hot cup of coffee and gaze out into a dark landscape partially illuminated by a warm glow of surface lighting. Our windstorms can be otherworldly, each sixty mile-per-hour gust at night bending back the boughs of the tree like a worn out toothbrush, scraping against a night sky eerily illuminated by the fast moving and low cloud deck, flashes of bright blue light in the distance, further highlighting the tendrils of vapor that try to escape the underside of the storm. Inversion season here might be one of the most widespread, long-lasting, and intense occurrences in the western hemisphere, with what seem to be days of near freezing and some valleys around collecting enough rime ice to make a snowball with. Our summers, aided by our high latitude and peaceful summer ocean, are easily the best in the entire nation, two to three solid months where the skies are absolutely clear, the temps above 70 but below 90, an enough humidity in the air to keep your lips from chapping, but not too much that you can go outside and enjoy a brisk walk, and how the summer twilight just seamlessly blends from sunset to moonrise, bright blue to black, all in a three hour long curtain drop, revealing absolutely beautiful night skies.

Maybe this is cope, it probably is. I still have dreams that my wife is suddenly ok with moving to Boston or New York, and am nothing short of ecstatic, mostly because of the weather I'll get to experience. If this is all just me hitting that final stage of grief, I'm ok with that. A lot more in my life that I love about the place I live in than just the weather, but the weather is still a big part of it.

[ShawniganLake]

Environment Canada says this was the warmest winter on record for Canada. Averaging 9.4F above normal.  

[bainbridgekid]

39 minutes ago, ShawniganLake said:

Environment Canada says this was the warmest winter on record for Canada. Averaging 9.4F above normal.  

Not only that, but it was 2 full degrees F warmer than the previous record in 09-10. Crazy to break a full country seasonal record by that much.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/climate/canada-winter-wmo-climate-1.7147699#:~:text=On average%2C the temperature over,4.1 C above the norm.

[Phil]

1 hour ago, westcoastexpat said:

May be a cop out because it's not a single storm, but having three 8"+ dumps in a single week was pretty exciting.

Too much information, dude.

[Phil]

1 hour ago, iFred said:

It's my third favorite too.

The month of Nor'easters in March 2018 is my favorite winter event of all time, followed by December 2008, followed by the Blizzard of 16, followed by the Ice Storm of 96 followed by November 2006 (that whole winter was fun), followed by November 2010, followed by the weekend storm of January 2012.

In my early twenties I would get sent into a little bit of a spiral thinking how if you go onto WeatherSpark, you could visualize the dozens of times that Seattle saw more than three inches of snow recorded on any day since 1980. It made me think that living out here, I would statistically would only see a regional multi day event once every fifteen years. Throw in all of the smaller events, it amounted to three weeks of snow cover for every ten years (I did the math on a spreadsheet back in 2010 or 2011 and cant find it). Add in some variance by including days where the high was 37º and under, you were looking at 45 days of solid winter for every ten years, 60 if you did sub-40º. In that period of "artistic" obsession, I found that Chuckanut Mountains served as a divide for climate, plant hardiness, average snow school days, and total snowfall. It seemed that every value that I valued for winter had doubled, the number of days below 40º, the number of days with snow on the ground, the number of BC licence plates in the Costco parking lot, all doubled. As a single man, living by himself, and working nights in tech, I had days and days to pour over these spreadsheets trying to optimize where I should live in Western Washington to get the most amount of snow and cold in the winter. Then I snapped.

Our climate in the lowlands is capable of those top tier storms that will even get Jim Cantore to risk his life to come out here and stand on the Pine St overpass in Seattle has heavy flakes come down. One read of Storm King and you get the idea why. That said, I have learned to love and embrace our landscape and climate as is. It is pretty unique and worthwhile in its own right. We have some of the most amazing rainstorms, giving us an opportunity to sit by a window with a hot cup of coffee and gaze out into a dark landscape partially illuminated by a warm glow of surface lighting. Our windstorms can be otherworldly, each sixty mile-per-hour gust at night bending back the boughs of the tree like a worn out toothbrush, scraping against a night sky eerily illuminated by the fast moving and low cloud deck, flashes of bright blue light in the distance, further highlighting the tendrils of vapor that try to escape the underside of the storm. Inversion season here might be one of the most widespread, long-lasting, and intense occurrences in the western hemisphere, with what seem to be days of near freezing and some valleys around collecting enough rime ice to make a snowball with. Our summers, aided by our high latitude and peaceful summer ocean, are easily the best in the entire nation, two to three solid months where the skies are absolutely clear, the temps above 70 but below 90, an enough humidity in the air to keep your lips from chapping, but not too much that you can go outside and enjoy a brisk walk, and how the summer twilight just seamlessly blends from sunset to moonrise, bright blue to black, all in a three hour long curtain drop, revealing absolutely beautiful night skies.

Maybe this is cope, it probably is. I still have dreams that my wife is suddenly ok with moving to Boston or New York, and am nothing short of ecstatic, mostly because of the weather I'll get to experience. If this is all just me hitting that final stage of grief, I'm ok with that. A lot more in my life that I love about the place I live in than just the weather, but the weather is still a big part of it.

We missed out on almost everything in March 2018. Just one moderate snowfall after the spring equinox and that was all she wrote.

Made big money after the windstorm on 3/2/18, though (I still worked in landscaping at the time). 18hrs of 60-70+mph gusts knocked down a lot of weak wood.

Basically every dead ash tree came down with that one. Every street was littered with them.

[BLI snowman]

59 minutes ago, ShawniganLake said:

Environment Canada says this was the warmest winter on record for Canada. Averaging 9.4F above normal.  

This month is absolutely torching too, just for good measure. Minneapolis is running a +11.5 anomaly. Just unending. 

Climate change appears to be accelerating more and more with baselines shifting. The big Nino this winter probably kicked things up a notch.