December 2020 Weather Observations for the PNW

[BLI snowman]

3 minutes ago, Phil said:

You think sun angles are bad up there? Cry me a river. 

February is usually the snowiest month of the year here too. But lately it’s been March..our average snowfall for March will actually increase from the 1981-2010 baseline to the 1991-2020 baseline. December has completely collapsed.

Well unlike Maryland, we don't have the luxury of merely having a 300' pile of dirt to block lower level cold air advection in the late winter.

[Gradient Keeper]

Day 6.5 (Past 4 runs) Interesting trend there

[Requiem]

24 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

Not so easy for some of us.  I have actually allowed the weather to partially ruin my life.  Something I'm not proud of, but that's the way it is.  I'm finally getting to the point where I deal with it a little better than I used to.

I empathize— used to get very caught up over stuff I couldn’t actually control. Still do to some extent— used it as a crutch for my existing problems.

I’d like to think I’ve become a more reasonable poster

[Gradient Keeper]

Day  7

[Gradient Keeper]

Day 8

[SilverFallsAndrew]

This run is actually fairly chilly Thur-Sat next week. 

[Phil]

10 minutes ago, BLI snowman said:

Well unlike Maryland, we don't have the luxury of merely having a 300' pile of dirt to block lower level cold air advection in the late winter.

That pile of dirt eats up 95% of boundary layer moisture advection from that direction. Can’t snow if it’s not precipitating.

[Omegaraptor]

11 minutes ago, BLI snowman said:

Well unlike Maryland, we don't have the luxury of merely having a 300' pile of dirt to block lower level cold air advection in the late winter.

I know this is a sweeping generalization, but as someone who grew up and lived in the West my whole life I can’t help but think of the vast majority of the US east of the 100th meridian as pancake flat. I’m probably wrong, though.

[Weather1011]

35 minutes ago, puyallupjon said:

why do i always hear people say we don't want to get the goods too early? or this or that may be a warning shot.  we don't need a warning shot, we need the goods as early and as often as we can get it.

 

**** that man.  this is Washington.  it can snow whenever the **** it can snow because the next 15 days can be written off in my opinion.  that puts us to almost Christmas.  No snow in November. No snow in December.

it is what it is.

Yeah the warning shot stuff has always been stupid lol You could get a "warning shot" and not see cold or snow again all year, Hell, Getting cold doesn't always mean snow. It takes a lot to go right and a D**n near perfect setup. We should forget about always talking about historic b.s and just focus on having a above average winter in the snow department for starters lol

 

 

[Gradient Keeper]

Day 9'er

[Weather1011]

39 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

Not so easy for some of us.  I have actually allowed the weather to partially ruin my life.  Something I'm not proud of, but that's the way it is.  I'm finally getting to the point where I deal with it a little better than I used to.

I'm sorry that has happened, Best way to look at it is "I can't control it so no point of letting it ruin my life". I do that in big things in life I know that's out of my control.

 

At the end of the day I hope you see what you want this winter, I just hope if it isn't as what you imagined you remember it's just weather at the end of the day.

I think this isn't the best place for you to be living. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

2 minutes ago, Omegaraptor said:

I know this is a sweeping generalization, but as someone who grew up and lived in the West my whole life I can’t help but think of the vast majority of the US east of the 100th meridian as pancake flat. I’m probably wrong, though.

Lol. Parts of it are, but there are a lot of mountainous, hilly areas in the east. The Adirondack mountains in upstate New York have dozens of peaks over 4,000’, the white mountains in new hamphire are over 6000’, the Smokey mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina are nearly 7,000’.

[BLI snowman]

4 minutes ago, Omegaraptor said:

I know this is a sweeping generalization, but as someone who grew up and lived in the West my whole life I can’t help but think of the vast majority of the US east of the 100th meridian as pancake flat.

Mt. Washington is supposedly the coldest, snowiest, windiest, and mountainiest place on this planet.

[Weather1011]

28 minutes ago, Phil said:

What do you mean “ruin your life”?

We can’t control the weather. I get what you’re saying but you can’t let ma nature dominate you 24/7. Push back a little.

Yeah I'm curious what he means by that as well.

 

He could try Tinder

[Kayla]

A lot more AK ridging on this run...

[Gradient Keeper]

Ummm 00z GEM trying to go places at just Day 4.5 to 5.

[Omegaraptor]

1 minute ago, BLI snowman said:

Mt. Washington is supposedly the coldest, snowiest, windiest, and mountainiest place on this planet.

Summit of Rainier is the only ice cap climate in the lower 48 states. Every month of the year has an average temp below freezing.

Wonder how windy it is compared to Mt Washington. The PNW as a region is much less windy than the Northeast, but it’s a bit different when we’re talking about over 14k feet in elevation and 7.5k above the treeline.

[Link]

Every time it's been clear here we immediately sink to below freezing.

[Gradient Keeper]

00z GFS 10 Day Rainfall, Snowfall totals

[Requiem]

9 minutes ago, Omegaraptor said:

I know this is a sweeping generalization, but as someone who grew up and lived in the West my whole life I can’t help but think of the vast majority of the US east of the 100th meridian as pancake flat. I’m probably wrong, though.

Same lol but I’m a born and bred Portlander so I guess my perspective is very limited 

[Jesse]

3 minutes ago, Omegaraptor said:

Summit of Rainier is the only ice cap climate in the lower 48 states. Every month of the year has an average temp below freezing.

Wonder how windy it is compared to Mt Washington. The PNW as a region is much less windy than the Northeast, but it’s a bit different when we’re talking about over 14k feet in elevation and 7.5k above the treeline.

This would be about the 12th time we've had this discussion here, by my count.

Also, the bolded part is debatable. 

 

[Omegaraptor]

8 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Lol. Parts of it are, but there are a lot of mountainous, hilly areas in the east. The Adirondack mountains in upstate New York have dozens of peaks over 4,000’, the white mountains in new hamphire are over 6000’, the Smokey mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina are nearly 7,000’.

I know about the various mountain ranges out east, we talk about them a lot on other wx forums I use in fact. But when I consider the fact that I have an 11250’ peak right in my backyard, those eastern mountain ranges don’t sound impressive in comparison, on paper at least. They’re still beautiful places, though.

[Gradient Keeper]

Day 5.5 Canadian is REALLY trying tonight

[SilverFallsAndrew]

I read somewhere once there is more glacial ice on Mt Rainier than anywhere else in the lower 48 combined. 

[Requiem]

How’s the easterly gradient looking tonight, Rob? Getting those howling noises outside already

[TT-SEA]

52 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

I was just talking about an inversion.  Normally very easy to pull off a good one this time of year.  You were the one that was saying we are going to get nailed this winter.  The chances are above average we will.

You completely ignored the ECMWF guidance on this one... I pointed this out last week and also said you won't believe it until next week.    You just assumed because its December we would be locked in cold fog for days.   The ECMWF handles inversions quite well... unlike the WRF.    I don't think you wanted to look.

[Gradient Keeper]

00z GEM Day 6 Closer, but still a bit too progressive pattern.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

I have been been to the smokies or white mountains but they look beautiful in pictures. I have been to West Virgina and Eastern Kentucky. Pretty hilly. 

[GHweatherChris]

Ahh, the ol "I told ya so post".

[Dan the Weatherman]

55 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

Not sure why people are so negative right now.  The East Coast mets are saying the West's turn is coming.  There was a good discussion about it on Weatherbell.

I hope they are right! The entire west desperately needs a pattern change to bring some major storms into the area with rain and mountain snow. It has been ridiculously dry in all of California this entire fall and we are still dealing with Santa Ana wind-related fires here in southern California in December of all months! Even the intermountain west needs precipitation as well.

[Cloud]

9 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

You completely ignored the ECMWF guidance on this one... I pointed this out last week and also said you won't believe it until next week.    You just assumed because its December we would be locked in cold fog for days.   The ECMWF handles inversions quite well... unlike the WRF.    I don't think you wanted to look.

So uh yeah. Wanted to bring this up a few times when he was talking about the foggy inversion despite the models not really showing much fog around here. Sometimes we just have to let people see it for themselves if they choose to ignore model guidance for something they don’t want to see. 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

24 minutes ago, Omegaraptor said:

I know this is a sweeping generalization, but as someone who grew up and lived in the West my whole life I can’t help but think of the vast majority of the US east of the 100th meridian as pancake flat. I’m probably wrong, though.

In general, the mountains of the East just don't compare to the ones in the West in terms of vertical relief. That said, I've been up Mount Washington and it is most definitely not flat! (I had astounding luck: a day in October that was clear and mild, with only light breezes, and the colorful rumpled quilt of northern New England in fall color stretching to the horizon below.)

The Appalachians once rivaled the Himalayas in size, but they are really old mountains and stopped growing hundreds of millions of years ago, so now they are but the eroded remains of what once was one of the greatest mountain ranges on Earth.

[Phil]

41 minutes ago, Omegaraptor said:

I know this is a sweeping generalization, but as someone who grew up and lived in the West my whole life I can’t help but think of the vast majority of the US east of the 100th meridian as pancake flat. I’m probably wrong, though.

I don’t know about the rest of the PNW, but having been to the Seattle - Everett corridor recently, I can say without a doubt there are more hills here locally (west of the fall line) versus the suburban areas out there. Especially on major roadways.

Different story once into the boonies, though still, the roadway infrastructure is MUCH better out there in PNW vs the Appalachians, even though the cascades are much taller.

[TigerWoodsLibido]

Down to freezing again!

[Rubus Leucodermis]

7 minutes ago, Cloud said:

So uh yeah. Wanted to bring this up a few times when he was talking about the foggy inversion despite the models not really showing much fog around here. Sometimes we just have to let people see it for themselves if they choose to ignore model guidance for something they don’t want to see. 

If anything, it’s a minority of wintertime ridges that make for a strong, foggy inversion. Everything has to go just right to get one here. It’s not like, say, the valleys of northern Utah and Nevada, which can get socked-in with cold and fog relatively easily in winter.

And in general, it is easier for the Willamette Valley from about Woodburn south to get such inversions than points north. The Rogue Valley around Medford is also a common place for such things to happen.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Looks wet at hour 384!

[Rubus Leucodermis]

3 minutes ago, TigerWoodsLibido said:

Down to freezing again!

Same here!

[SilverFallsAndrew]

34 here. Inversion. 

[The Swamp]

1 hour ago, Runtmc said:

Those last four words are key.

If you see something different there, please point it out.

 

Again, it looks like typical December weather to me.

[Phil]

53 minutes ago, Omegaraptor said:

Summit of Rainier is the only ice cap climate in the lower 48 states. Every month of the year has an average temp below freezing.

Wonder how windy it is compared to Mt Washington. The PNW as a region is much less windy than the Northeast, but it’s a bit different when we’re talking about over 14k feet in elevation and 7.5k above the treeline.

Mount Washington’s winds are largely the result of topography, not the height of the mountain. It’s not even the tallest mountain in New England, let alone the rest of the Appalachians.

It’s been a touchy subject in the past, but take a look at NWS point-and-click forecasts for Mt. Rainier and Mt. Washington, respectively. I think you’ll get the general idea.