August 2024 PNW weather discussion

[Snowfan]

Meatyorologist I am so sorry about your dad to. Cancer is a really evil disease. I am glad your dad made it. Unfortunately mine is not going to he had it spread to his brain so it is bad. 

Thank you for you analysis on my question. That is good information to know and alot of good information to go off of. Thank you so much! We are kind of stuck in the furthest south we can move is Lakewoood because of my wife's job. We are going to go for it as just getting into a house at this point. We are first time home buyers and the market is insane right now. thank you everyone!

[Phishy Wx]

 

 

[Deweydog]

Not too shabby… worth the five minute detour. 

[T-Town]

iPhone can’t do it justice. 

[The Blob]

[Phishy Wx]

we had a good sunset here too due to a plume from a new local fire west of Spokane, oof 

[Meatyorologist]

4 minutes ago, Snowfan said:

Meatyorologist I am so sorry about your dad to. Cancer is a really evil disease. I am glad your dad made it. Unfortunately mine is not going to he had it spread to his brain so it is bad. 

Thank you for you analysis on my question. That is good information to know and alot of good information to go off of. Thank you so much! We are kind of stuck in the furthest south we can move is Lakewoood because of my wife's job. We are going to go for it as just getting into a house at this point. We are first time home buyers and the market is insane right now. thank you everyone!

Thanks for the kind words. The house you are looking at looks great, 350' is upper end for the area.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

CFS looking good for December and February.

[Phishy Wx]

they nailed it this year for the most part except up here

 

 

 

[TigerWoodsLibido]

Closing out the month with one more burger!!

[TacomaWx]

1 hour ago, Snowfan said:

Meatyorologist I am so sorry about your dad to. Cancer is a really evil disease. I am glad your dad made it. Unfortunately mine is not going to he had it spread to his brain so it is bad. 

Thank you for you analysis on my question. That is good information to know and alot of good information to go off of. Thank you so much! We are kind of stuck in the furthest south we can move is Lakewoood because of my wife's job. We are going to go for it as just getting into a house at this point. We are first time home buyers and the market is insane right now. thank you everyone!

Trying to buy my first house in the next couple months as well. It is crazy trying to be a first time home buyer…just was out on the peninsula today looking out there. 

[Snowfan]

2 minutes ago, TacomaWx said:

Trying to buy my first house in the next couple months as well. It is crazy trying to be a first time home buyer…just was out on the peninsula today looking out there. 

I hope you make it into the market. We just found out our offer got accepted so I think we got it this time. After about 7 offer letters put in. I hope you find something and we were looking on the peninsula as a back up but my wife's commute would of been horrible so we did not go that direction. I hope you get into a house. My advice is just keep trying even after having offers rejected. It just takes 1 yes.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Today is 13 years since I closed on this place. I didn’t think buying a house was very fun. 
 

 

[snow_wizard]

2 hours ago, Deweydog said:

He’s a nutcase. 

I know some people say that, but I think it's a pretty big deal that in spite of his East Coast bias he thinks we are going to get nailed.

[snow_wizard]

52 minutes ago, TacomaWx said:

Trying to buy my first house in the next couple months as well. It is crazy trying to be a first time home buyer…just was out on the peninsula today looking out there. 

It feels so good not throwing your hard earned money down a hole by paying somebody else rent.

[snow_wizard]

2 hours ago, Meatyorologist said:

First off, sorry to hear about your dad. Mine had cancer when I was in middle school, and that was rough to deal with, even though he survived.

As for your snow situation, try going west and uphill. Google maps places a vast majority of the broad suburban sprawl west of Tacoma at or above 250', though there are certain hilltops that eclipse the four hundred foot mark, such as Skyline and Peach Acres. If you're willing to leap the pond across Commencement Bay, there are some wildly expensive homes at elevations exceeding 500' in Dash Point.

The issue with going east is that Tacoma is positioned directly under the crossfires of the White River valley gap winds, meaning that with every mile east you go, you lose more and more snow to drying gap outflow. And going north presents a similar issue, since you creep further and further into the influence of the Olympic rain shadow, without gaining any real convergence zone coverage (until you reach the SeaTac-Des Moines area).

Going further southwest puts you into position to be hit by squalls gorging their way northeast up the Chehalis Gap, without any weakening influence due to descent off the Mt St Helens wilderness. Our terrain can be a bish sometimes, as you can clearly tell.

Eh, most of the Tacoma area is far away from any temperature boundaries during marginal onshore events, so going away from the sound wouldn't make much of a difference. The Fife-Eatonville corridor is infamous for precip holes during snow events due to being placed in the lee of so much terrain; an effect made all the worse by awkward streamflow directions during our naturally highly amplified snowfall patterns.

My advice is to simply go south and west and up, up, up!

Or there's this.

I agree with much of this, but you can never go wrong getting inland from the Sound.

[Meatyorologist]

6 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

I agree with much of this, but you can never go wrong getting inland from the Sound.

An old wisdom. Sounds like somthing I'd hear Sam Argier say on KIRO before heading out to school while crossing my fingers.

[SouthHillFrosty]

2 hours ago, Snowfan said:

Meatyorologist I am so sorry about your dad to. Cancer is a really evil disease. I am glad your dad made it. Unfortunately mine is not going to he had it spread to his brain so it is bad. 

Thank you for you analysis on my question. That is good information to know and alot of good information to go off of. Thank you so much! We are kind of stuck in the furthest south we can move is Lakewoood because of my wife's job. We are going to go for it as just getting into a house at this point. We are first time home buyers and the market is insane right now. thank you everyone!

Hey man, born and raised in the south end. Tacoma, Fife, Edgewood and Puyallup are pretty bad for snow. South Hill is better but traffic is bad. 

Federal Way is actually a bit better for snow than South Hill since I moved here (around 400ft elevation). 
 

Lakewood isn’t great for snow.  If you really want good snow, you need to get out to Bonney Lake and go any where east of that to start. However, a long commute to Seattle/Tacoma. Feel free to ask any questions. 

[BLI snowman]

4 hours ago, snow_wizard said:

FWIW Joe Bastardi is saying this is our winter coming up.  He has sub -3 departure for a good part of WA for Nov - Mar.  That would be a really big deal if it verifies.

 

or if you prefer it with a sprinkle of Nic Cage and that guy from CSI.

[snow_wizard]

15 minutes ago, BLI snowman said:

 

or if you prefer it with a sprinkle of Nic Cage and that guy from CSI.

Kind of fun to imagine a sub -3 average for Nov - Mar though.  That's pretty big time.

[snow_wizard]

20 minutes ago, SouthHillFrosty said:

Hey man, born and raised in the south end. Tacoma, Fife, Edgewood and Puyallup are pretty bad for snow. South Hill is better but traffic is bad. 

Federal Way is actually a bit better for snow than South Hill since I moved here (around 400ft elevation). 
 

Lakewood isn’t great for snow.  If you really want good snow, you need to get out to Bonney Lake and go any where east of that to start. However, a long commute to Seattle/Tacoma. Feel free to ask any questions. 

Sometimes Lakewood can avoid shadowing with cold onshore flow though.

[Deweydog]

1 minute ago, snow_wizard said:

Kind of fun to imagine a sub -3 average for Nov - Mar though.  That's pretty big time.

Imagine if he said -4!!!

[snow_wizard]

4 minutes ago, Deweydog said:

Imagine if he said -4!!!

The lack of trust in Bastardi is a bit overdone I think.  He does have a lot of experience under his belt and has made a pretty good life for himself in this game.  

[SpaceRace22]

mmmmmmm  dopamine

 

[snow_wizard]

19 minutes ago, SpaceRace22 said:

mmmmmmm  dopamine

 

Pretty hard core.

[Ray]

11 hours ago, Snowfan said:

Hey I have been a long time lurker and I made a post awhile ago about moving to Detroit. That plan got canceled due to my dad being diagnosed with cancer. Instead my wife and I are going to be buying a house in Tacoma. I was wondering if there are any areas in Tacoma that do well in snow events compared to other parts of Tacoma? 

You might consider southeast Tacoma.  Neighborhoods around the Canyon Road area between Highway 512 and 72nd street don't do too bad.  Also Summit area adjacent to that isn't too bad.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Pretty sure we had a -3 departure here November-March 2022-23.

[Front Ranger]

51 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Pretty sure we had a -3 departure here November-March 2022-23.

Pretty close according to this. 

 

[Snowfan]

11 hours ago, SouthHillFrosty said:

Hey man, born and raised in the south end. Tacoma, Fife, Edgewood and Puyallup are pretty bad for snow. South Hill is better but traffic is bad. 

Federal Way is actually a bit better for snow than South Hill since I moved here (around 400ft elevation). 
 

Lakewood isn’t great for snow.  If you really want good snow, you need to get out to Bonney Lake and go any where east of that to start. However, a long commute to Seattle/Tacoma. Feel free to ask any questions. 

Thank you for the insight. I figured from what I have noticed that area is not the best for snow. I just wanted to see if there was any areas that were better. I am lucky I don't have to commute. I work from home. My wife does have to commute to bellevue until she gets transferred. We are factoring in 2 to 3 hrs for commuting time each way. Hopefully it won't take her to long to get transferred down there. Thank you so much! 

 

3 hours ago, Ray said:

You might consider southeast Tacoma.  Neighborhoods around the Canyon Road area between Highway 512 and 72nd street don't do too bad.  Also Summit area adjacent to that isn't too bad.

Thank you for this insight. I will look there if the house we had our offer accepted on does fall through. Thank you so much!

[NWbyNW]

Some very cool Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds (Wave Clouds) were seen September 3rd off of Whidbey Island.  Photos taken at Cultus Bay on the southern end of Whidbey Island, south of Clinton.

[AbbyJr]

On 8/28/2024 at 2:57 PM, Phil said:

Also have +IOD still holding despite -ENSO.

If it holds into late fall/early winter, it will be in company with only 1999/00 and 2007/08.

Those aren't great wishful thinking analogs for PNW winter lovers. 1999/00 was a total dud with 2007/08 being okay up here in the Fraser Valley but still lacked any sustained arctic blasts despite a brief one day heavy snowfall.

But was the +IOD was caused those winters to fail here in the PNW?