December 2020 Weather Observations for the PNW

[MR.SNOWMIZER]

4 degree drop at port Angles in 1 hour

[TT-SEA]

Its ridiculously warm here for a December morning... 56 degrees with a strong south wind roaring.   And somehow its only 44 at SEA with no wind there.

Hard to believe there will likely be snow on the ground by midnight here.

[Chewbacca Defense]

Its a very wet 39 degrees here, .21" in the rain bucket so far.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

51 here which is totally insane for December 21st. On this date 30 years ago we pulled off a 12/-2 day. 
 

Whether or not it snows tonight, it probably will not be this warm again for quite a while. I imagine some valley locations will hit 60 today. 

[TT-SEA]

Also 56 in North Bend right now... side note the camera only updates when the sun is up so that image is from yesterday evening still.

[TT-SEA]

7 hours ago, bainbridgekid said:

Important to note that firat map isn't 4PM temps but max temps between 10AM and 4PM. I'm sure it'd be snowing at your house by around 4 on that map.

Rookie mistake by me!   I had the wrong parameter... did not mean to show the 6-hour max.   I have corrected many people on that myself.      

Side note... it likely will not be snowing at 4 p.m. though because the temp is still in the 50s here.    This is the temps at 4 p.m. and not the max temp from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

 

[TheNewCulverJosh]

4 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Also 56 in North Bend right now... side note the camera only updates when the sun is up so that image is from yesterday evening still.

Reminds me a lot of November, '05, except it happened overnight.  This is when I lived in Lake Stevens.

I went to bed at 9 PM and it was 62 degrees, my wife woke me up at 4 AM and it was 31 and snowing heavily.  I believe this was Thanksgiving day or very near, memory is hazy.  It snowed a quick couple inches by 8 AM or so and then warmed up to the mid 40's that afternoon.  I do remember driving my brother to the airport that morning and there was literally no snow down at the Hwy 2 trestle, and the airport was low 40's with sprinkles.

[TT-SEA]

Just now, TheNewCulverJosh said:

Reminds me a lot of November, '05, except it happened overnight.  This is when I lived in Lake Stevens.

I went to bed at 9 PM and it was 62 degrees, my wife woke me up at 4 AM and it was 31 and snowing heavily.  I believe this was Thanksgiving day or very near, memory is hazy.  It snowed a quick couple inches by 8 AM or so and then warmed up to the mid 40's that afternoon.  I do remember driving my brother to the airport that morning and there was literally no snow down at the Hwy 2 trestle, and the airport was low 40's with sprinkles.

That is an impressive drop... it does sound similar to what is coming today.

[TT-SEA]

The 06Z ECMWF shows a burst of snow here between 6-8 p.m. 

[Art_Digbee]

Wet morning here on Orcas Island... 0.68" since 3am, temp plummeting now - down to 39. Snowing at several higher places on the island now probably.

[MR.SNOWMIZER]

Tim, i really feel like you will get hit hard later tonight with snow. I would not be surprised if you got ten inches of snow by morning.

[TT-SEA]

1 minute ago, Art_Digbee said:

Wet morning here on Orcas Island... 0.68" since 3am, temp plummeting now - down to 39. Snowing at several higher places on the island now probably.

I love Orcas Island... what a beautiful place.    

[El_Nina]

Just now, TT-SEA said:

I love Orcas Island... what a beautiful place.    

Trees on that one though.

[TT-SEA]

Just now, MR.SNOWMIZER said:

Tim, i really feel like you will get hit hard later tonight with snow. I would not be surprised if you got ten inches of snow by morning.

Not likely given the duration of the precip.   The main band is through here by 8 p.m. and the ECMWF insists the c-zone will be up north later in the night and it never really shifts south... it just fades away by morning.   The ECMWF does really well with c-zone placement.

 

[seattleweatherguy]

I personally think today will be flurries with lumpy rain at best maybe a small amount of wet snow. Nothing sticking at 400 feet

[Ray]

Over the last 90 minutes went from 46 to 52.  Going the wrong way. 

[Timmy]

This looks a little better for y’all up north than the 06z

[Blizzard777]

24 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Its ridiculously warm here for a December morning... 56 degrees with a strong south wind roaring.   And somehow its only 44 at SEA with no wind there.

Hard to believe there will likely be snow on the ground by midnight here.

44 here as well but winds will pick up soon from the south 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

40˚F rain.

[MossMan]

Moderate rain and 40 degrees. 
.71” so far on the day. 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

10 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

I love Orcas Island... what a beautiful place.    

My favorite of the San Juan Islands. It was one of the places I thought of moving to when I left the Seattle metro area.

[MR.SNOWMIZER]

I am missing a good storm at my cabin by 24hrs!! I was there for the weekend and there is about 12 inches there. This happens to me all the time lol. The NWS was saying how rare it is for a low pressure system to track into E WA and build in strength as it moves east over land. Every 2-5 years is what they say.  should be about 8-10 inches there and that's a good storm in that area as we get about 3-5 inches at a time for the most part.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Well at least by Wednesday the NWS forecast for Salem is 43/31 and 43/28 at Eugene. Will at least feel like winter again. This rainfall was a boon. SLE is now above average on the month. 

[Blizzard777]

Current snapshot temps and wind gust

 

[TT-SEA]

4 minutes ago, Jginmartini said:

Current snapshot temps and wind gust

 

Warm nose out here!  

[Rubus Leucodermis]

9 minutes ago, hawkstwelve said:

A fair amount better for Whatcom and VI, which is good cause they really need snow. Been way too long for them. 

It’s literally been months. Due!

[seattleweatherguy]

10 minutes ago, hawkstwelve said:

A fair amount better for Whatcom and VI, which is good cause they really need snow. Been way too long for them. 

North King gets nailed too. I am down with this if it verries.

[jakerepp]

14 minutes ago, hawkstwelve said:

A fair amount better for Whatcom and VI, which is good cause they really need snow. Been way too long for them. 

Looks like 1.5'' here, which with high surface temps, might really only be less than 1'' unless precip rates are super high. Still a nice encouraging map to see after bad trends. It is still the GFS, though. I guess the CZ remains the unknown factor. 

I just want to see some snowflakes in the air, honestly. Would be nice to wake up to a little bit of white tomorrow.

[MossMan]

14 minutes ago, hawkstwelve said:

A fair amount better for Whatcom and VI, which is good cause they really need snow. Been way too long for them. 

That looks great! 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

39˚F rain.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

1 minute ago, jakerepp said:

Looks like 1.5'' here, which with high surface temps, might really only be less than 1'' unless precip rates are super high. 

I just want to see some snowflakes in the air, honestly. Would be nice to wake up to a little bit of white tomorrow.

The ratio will be more like 6:1 instead of the 10:1 that model is based on, and the ground is warm so a lot of it will melt instead of accumulating. I will be very pleasantly surprised if I see even half as much as the forecast 5.8" accumulate here.

[FroYoBro]

4 minutes ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

39˚F rain.

It should be a pretty fun weather day up there. A little bit jealous. 

[MossMan]

1 minute ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

The ratio will be more like 6:1 instead of the 10:1 that model is based on, and the ground is warm so a lot of it will melt instead of accumulating. I will be very pleasantly surprised if I see even half as much as the forecast 5.8" accumulate here.

Even just big fat flakes falling heavily even if it doesn’t stick well is still a win right now in this PNA+ state! 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

4 minutes ago, FroYoBro said:

It should be a pretty fun weather day up there. A little bit jealous. 

It was hardly the only factor in my decision, but the desire to get in on the “Whatcom County Specials” that I had been enviously watching happen from afar for years definitely was a factor in my moving here.

P.S. And it could well be nothing but cold rain even up this way. This really is a marginal set-up. The GOLU model will reveal all!

[Blizzard777]

3 minutes ago, FroYoBro said:

It should be a pretty fun weather day up there. A little bit jealous. 

Agree, 5 days of playing 5 card no peek.  Today nature lays down her hand

[Blizzard777]

8 minutes ago, MossMan said:

Even just big fat flakes falling heavily even if it doesn’t stick well is still a win right now in this PNA+ state! 

Wrong train of thought!  You Wants IT All!!! C’MON! 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

Reports of snow starting to come in from VI and the Gulf Islands on the Canadian forum. Still 39˚F and holding here.

[MossMan]

I love how the PNA became allergic to the negative as soon as we hit the time of the year where it would really come in handy...

[seattleweatherguy]

Just now, hawkstwelve said:

Looks like everyone is getting skunked today, per NWS. No snow for Tim, BLI folks, Port Angeles, or anyone else really.

 

Lets hope the NWS busts

[TT-SEA]

Here is the "before" pic this morning... let see what this view looks like tomorrow morning.