March 2024 Weather in the PNW

[Sunriver Snow Zone]

65 currently, 71/21 day, exact same high and low temp as yesterday.

[Meatyorologist]

8 hours 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.

Sort of my perspective too. I've found that community and things to do are what really drive happiness. Our climate is comically pleasant to live in, though I will say the 35-45F temps with drizzle kind of sucks. Just commit to freezing temps and snow already. Or resign to something warmer. Ah well.... I was only born here, gotta figure out a way to love it all.

Storm King will happen again. It's pretty much inevitable.

[Phil]

Idk how relevant this is to this particular forum but decided on a long stroll through the neighborhood today. Snapped some pics of nature coming to life.  

Cherries 75% to peak. And the old trees are already either leafing out or heavy with buds.  Bizarrely rapid green-up as everything was dormant 7-8 days ago.

[Phil]

 

[the_convergence_zone]

27 minutes ago, Phil said:

Idk how relevant this is to this particular forum but decided on a long stroll through the neighborhood today. Snapped some pics of nature coming to life.  

Cherries 75% to peak. And the old trees are already either leafing out or heavy with buds.  Bizarrely rapid green-up as everything was dormant 7-8 days ago.

Saw these on my evening walk. A gust of wind caused so much pollen to come off a juniper hedge that it looked like smoke. 

[Phil]

7 minutes ago, the_convergence_zone said:

Saw these on my evening walk. A gust of wind caused so much pollen to come off a juniper hedge that it looked like smoke. 

Those are some healthy blooms! What species/cultivar? They don’t look like pure yoshinos.

[Front Ranger]

21 minutes ago, Phil said:

 

The last vestiges of your love are fading...

[Cloud]

Hope everyone got to enjoy a taste of spring! Now bring back the rain.

[RaleighHillsRunner]

4 hours ago, Port Angeles Foothiller said:

Winter is dark and long. People suffer from SAD. The sun is a welcome event. Pretty easy to understand...

This x1000 - I just don’t understand rooting for constant 40s and misery through April. I freaking love snow and cold…in the winter. Seasons are still a thing, and Spring is a great one.

And yeah, was it warmer than it needed to be for a couple days? Sure. But fear not! Cold rain is on the horizon  

[Anti Marine Layer]

Happy Spring Equinox!

[Front Ranger]

22 minutes ago, Cloud said:

Hope everyone got to enjoy a taste of spring! Now bring back the rain.

It's March 19.

[Sunriver Snow Zone]

36 minutes ago, RaleighHillsRunner said:

This x1000 - I just don’t understand rooting for constant 40s and misery through April. I freaking love snow and cold…in the winter. Seasons are still a thing, and Spring is a great one.

And yeah, was it warmer than it needed to be for a couple days? Sure. But fear not! Cold rain is on the horizon  

I love snow/cold, and sun/warmth! Anything else is useless to me (except clouds/thunderstorms in the summer)

[Sunriver Snow Zone]

Interesting update for the colors @iFred

Looks weird but I'll get used to it I guess.

[MossMan]

3 minutes ago, Sunriver Snow Zone said:

Interesting update for the colors @iFred

Looks weird but I'll get used to it I guess.

Spring time Easter colors! 

[hawkstwelve]

4 minutes ago, Sunriver Snow Zone said:

Interesting update for the colors @iFred

Looks weird but I'll get used to it I guess.

You can blame me for any dislikes of the theme. 

I try and switch it up each season. Winter was pretty dark colors, spring in my mind is much more light so that's what I went with. Don't like it? Wait till next season... Maybe you'll like that one more.

[DeepFriedEgg]

25 minutes ago, Sunriver Snow Zone said:

Interesting update for the colors @iFred

Looks weird but I'll get used to it I guess.

Different font too.

[hawkstwelve]

1 minute ago, DeepFriedEgg said:

Different font too.

Good heads up on that. Changed it back to Roboto.  

[Rubus Leucodermis]

1 hour ago, the_convergence_zone said:

Saw these on my evening walk. A gust of wind caused so much pollen to come off a juniper hedge that it looked like smoke. 

Those are Yoshino cherries. Ours are still a day or three from that stage.

The Magnolia kobus is now almost in full bloom. Enough flowers are now open that it is perfuming the courtyard.

[bainbridgekid]

00z GFS really increased mountain snow early next week. Over 2 feet for both Snoqualmie and Stevens Pass which would be great.

 

[Phil]

9 minutes ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

Those are Yoshino cherries. Ours are still a day or three from that stage.

The Magnolia kobus is now almost in full bloom. Enough flowers are now open that it is perfuming the courtyard.

The bark doesn’t look yoshino. On trees that age/size, yoshino bark is smooth with slits of horizontal furrowing.

I suspect it’s a yoshino cultivar/hybrid of some sort.

[Cascadia_Wx]

1 hour ago, RaleighHillsRunner said:

This x1000 - I just don’t understand rooting for constant 40s and misery through April. I freaking love snow and cold…in the winter. Seasons are still a thing, and Spring is a great one.

And yeah, was it warmer than it needed to be for a couple days? Sure. But fear not! Cold rain is on the horizon  

I like how rooting for anything but breaking multiple warm records every time we turn around means 40s through April. Some more seasonable sunny days in the 60s maybe peaking in the low 70s would have been pretty palatable too.

[Cascadia_Wx]

30 minutes ago, DeepFriedEgg said:

Different font too.

I find it strange that this is a meteorology forum but we seem to adhere to the astronomical definitions of the seasons.

[the_convergence_zone]

11 minutes ago, Phil said:

The bark doesn’t look yoshino. On trees that age/size, yoshino bark is smooth with slits of horizontal furrowing.

I suspect it’s a yoshino cultivar/hybrid of some sort.

I have no idea what variety they are. There is a different variety across the street that looks similar but blooms about 10 days later. 

 

[hawkstwelve]

19 minutes ago, Cascadia_Wx said:

I find it strange that this is a meteorology forum but we seem to adhere to the astronomical definitions of the seasons.

Duly noted.

[Cascadia_Wx]

10 minutes ago, hawkstwelve said:

Duly noted.

It’s nitpicky and not worth worrying too much about, but it’s just something that’s crossed my mind. I do like the idea of having a different color scheme for each season, though!

[Cascadia_Wx]

Just missed 70 here today with a 69/44 spread. So only three in a row here since we were 69/37 on Friday. Clouded up around sunset and it’s down to 51 now with a cooler NW breeze.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday were 75/49, 74/42 and 75/43 here respectively. Wall to wall golden Prozac  

[Rubus Leucodermis]

1 hour ago, the_convergence_zone said:

I have no idea what variety they are. There is a different variety across the street that looks similar but blooms about 10 days later.

I agree the bark is not a good match, but perhaps something happened to injure and scar it. The flowers look exactly like Yoshino cherry to me.

[Deweydog]

Bye summer!

[iFred]

3 hours ago, hawkstwelve said:

You can blame me for any dislikes of the theme. 

I try and switch it up each season. Winter was pretty dark colors, spring in my mind is much more light so that's what I went with. Don't like it? Wait till next season... Maybe you'll like that one more.

I like it. You do a lot behind the scenes here and don’t get enough credit for it. Thank you for doing what you do.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

38.8/63.0˚F for the day IMBY.

[Sunriver Snow Zone]

3 hours ago, hawkstwelve said:

You can blame me for any dislikes of the theme. 

I try and switch it up each season. Winter was pretty dark colors, spring in my mind is much more light so that's what I went with. Don't like it? Wait till next season... Maybe you'll like that one more.

I like the theme, just I'm not used to it. I think it's good that you switch it up with the seasons. Thank you for for the work you do on here, great website and it wouldn't be possible without you and fred.

[Sunriver Snow Zone]

A disgusting 45 degrees here currently, 71/21 day. Probably won't get any colder than maybe the low 30s tonight.

[Meatyorologist]

1 hour ago, Sunriver Snow Zone said:

A disgusting 45 degrees here currently, 71/21 day. Probably won't get any colder than maybe the low 30s tonight.

Wild spread.

[TigerWoodsLibido]

48F and cloudy.

[TT-SEA]

Latest GEFS is pretty much all climo when averaged out over next 2 weeks.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

06z had a little snow here next week. We'll see. Currently light rain and 45. 

[RaleighHillsRunner]

9 hours ago, Cascadia_Wx said:

I like how rooting for anything but breaking multiple warm records every time we turn around means 40s through April. Some more seasonable sunny days in the 60s maybe peaking in the low 70s would have been pretty palatable too.

This I wholeheartedly agree with  

[Rubus Leucodermis]

Clouds held the temperature to a mild (for the date) 43.2˚F overnight.

[Cascadia_Wx]

13 hours ago, Meatyorologist said:

Sort of my perspective too. I've found that community and things to do are what really drive happiness. Our climate is comically pleasant to live in, though I will say the 35-45F temps with drizzle kind of sucks. Just commit to freezing temps and snow already. Or resign to something warmer. Ah well.... I was only born here, gotta figure out a way to love it all.

Storm King will happen again. It's pretty much inevitable.

Living here and hating 35-45 degree drizzle is kind of like living in Florida and hating thunderstorms

[umadbro]

Gonna miss the recent warm stretch. Played golf, spent time outside with my daughter. Loved that stretch we just went through just as much as the stretch of snow and cold back in January.