PNW January 2022, Contact Info for Phil

[bainbridgekid]

Big fat flakes falling here in the CZ in Everett. No rain mixed in and 34 degrees.

[joelgombiner]

I still can't fathom Fairbanks going from +43 to -45 over the course of a few days last week... 

[snow_wizard]

39 minutes ago, GHweatherChris said:

None, and 925s are below 0!  And zero mention of a chance by the NWS for tonight, but limited moisture anyways.

I had zero expectations for this area.  Shadowing from the Olympics was inevitable.  Certainly a decently cold air mass though.

[joelgombiner]

1 minute ago, snow_wizard said:

It kind of has been in WA also.

Sure has. Fall started strong and it never let up. 

[joelgombiner]

It's been a solidly cold month for many. 

[MossMan]

Rain snow mix. 35.9. 

[snow_wizard]

Too bad so few stations have snow depth data.  I would love to know what the wind blast in Ellensburg has done to their snow depth.

[snow_wizard]

5 minutes ago, joelgombiner said:

It's been a solidly cold month for many. 

It's pretty apparent the extreme norther tier has been the big winner though.  Those tight N to S gradients are a breeding ground for snow as we have seen.

[snow_wizard]

13 minutes ago, joelgombiner said:

Sure has. Fall started strong and it never let up. 

I hope we can eek out a cold / dry pattern eventually though.  hopefully right after we get another round of snow.

[Meatyorologist]

[MossMan]

 

[Geos]

Anyone know how much snow the passes got this week?

[MossMan]

All snow now and 34.9. 

[RentonHill]

GEFS

[Geos]

21 minutes ago, MossMan said:

All snow now and 34.9. 

Can you say you had a solid snow cover all day?

[snow_wizard]

The ECMWF and GFS are finally showing some pretty dry weather over the next 10 days.  Looks like we might be entering a different regime.  It was inevitable the endless active weather would have to quiet down eventually.  Looks like a ton of blocking potential over the NE Pacific coming up.

[snow_wizard]

16 minutes ago, snow drift said:

You're thinking of 1984. It started late, but it was just about dead average from July through September. I could live with something like that. Otherwise most 1980s summers were cooler than average.

No...it was 1993.  1984 was a much drier summer.  1993 had a very wet July.  People that have been on here for years know I am one of the top people around for knowing my weather history.

We might have been talking about two different things, but I was commenting on what you said about 1993 being cool.

[Geos]

This Stevens Pass snowfall report seems really low. 26" 7 day total ending at 4am yesterday.

https://www.stevenspass.com/the-mountain/mountain-conditions/weather-report.aspx

[snow_wizard]

Looks like North Bend has fallen out of favor with the snow gods.  39 there tonight.  I think they missed out on snow a couple of days ago also.

[snow_wizard]

1 minute ago, Geos said:

This Stevens Pass snowfall report seems really low. 26" 7 day total ending at 4am yesterday.

https://www.stevenspass.com/the-mountain/mountain-conditions/weather-report.aspx

No way.

[Ice_is_Everywhere]

Apparently Amtrak’s Empire Builder traveling westbound to Seattle tried to cross Stevens Pass but failed due to excessive snow and returned east to Wenatchee.

[Geos]

7 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

No way.

Right Leavenworth got at least that!

Now for Snoqualmie Pass, 69". That sounds right. 

https://wsdot.com/travel/real-time/mountainpasses/snowfallreport

[MossMan]

32 minutes ago, Geos said:

Can you say you had a solid snow cover all day?

This was before dark, more grass showing so not quite solid snow cover anymore. 

[Ice_is_Everywhere]

3 minutes ago, Ice_is_Everywhere said:

Apparently Amtrak’s Empire Builder traveling westbound to Seattle tried to cross Stevens Pass but failed due to excessive snow and returned east to Wenatchee.

Update: A freight train derailed near the 7.8 mile Cascade Tunnel (the summit of the pass on the railroad) and it took BNSF longer to get the necessary equipment in to clean it up than usual because of Hwy 2’s closure, forcing Amtrak to return east to Spokane, where it will depart as today’s eastbound train to Chicago.

[Cjmessling]

My uncle sent me a few pictures today. He lives about 500 feet higher than cle run in the hills out there. They’ve lived there for about 5 years so they are accustomed to tons of snow but even he had to shake his head at this amount. Over 60” in 7 days

 

 

[gusky]

17 minutes ago, Cjmessling said:

My uncle sent me a few pictures today. He lives about 500 feet higher than cle run in the hills out there. They’ve lived there for about 5 years so they are accustomed to tons of snow but even he had to shake his head at this amount. Over 60” in 7 days

 

 

That amount of snow is just hard to comprehend living in. I'm trying to imagine what it would be like to try and live life with that much snow but can't. On the other hand, I could fulfill my childhood dream (OK, it's still a dream of mine) of digging tunnels under the snow to different places.

[TT-SEA]

2 hours ago, MossMan said:

 

My son was up there on Wednesday evening as well... I warned him that could happen.   He made it out just in time.

[TT-SEA]

6 hours ago, snow_wizard said:

Looks like North Bend has fallen out of favor with the snow gods.  39 there tonight.  I think they missed out on snow a couple of days ago also.

Just comes down to c-zone placement tonight. 

[snow_wizard]

Nice strong -EPO signal on tonight's EPS.  Certainly something we haven't seen yet this winter.

[snow_wizard]

1 hour ago, Ice_is_Everywhere said:

Apparently Amtrak’s Empire Builder traveling westbound to Seattle tried to cross Stevens Pass but failed due to excessive snow and returned east to Wenatchee.

Can't believe they even tried it after the horrible 1910 disaster.

[snow_wizard]

46 minutes ago, gusky said:

That amount of snow is just hard to comprehend living in. I'm trying to imagine what it would be like to try and live life with that much snow but can't. On the other hand, I could fulfill my childhood dream (OK, it's still a dream of mine) of digging tunnels under the snow to different places.

Incredibly Seattle had more than that in January 1880.  I think it was 76 inches in 3 days.  Our weather history is insane.

[TT-SEA]

4 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

Nice strong -EPO signal on tonight's EPS.  Certainly something we haven't seen yet this winter.

Feels like its been months since it showed us being drier than normal for the next 2 weeks.

 

[snow_wizard]

If we get into a good -EPO regime and then retrograde from there this could be a great opportunity for NW OR to score coming up.  This would also give us a much needed break from the onslaught of AR events.

[Geos]

1 hour ago, Cjmessling said:

My uncle sent me a few pictures today. He lives about 500 feet higher than cle run in the hills out there. They’ve lived there for about 5 years so they are accustomed to tons of snow but even he had to shake his head at this amount. Over 60” in 7 days

 

 

Those are epic pictures! I have been back on those hills before.

[TT-SEA]

I have become so used to tracking the 925mb temps over the last few weeks... and it seems strange to see it go above zero tomorrow and stay there for the next 10 days on the 00Z ECMWF.    Seems like 925mb temps have been below zero for most of the last month.  

[Phil]

23 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

Incredibly Seattle had more than that in January 1880.  I think it was 76 inches in 3 days.  Our weather history is insane.

How often does Seattle see 7+ inches of rainfall in 72hrs? Let alone in an airmass cold enough to support snow?

I suspect “76 inches in 3 days” is bogus. At least for Seattle. Unpopular opinion, I know.

[snow_wizard]

14 minutes ago, Phil said:

How often does Seattle see 7+ inches of rainfall in 72hrs? Let alone in an airmass cold enough to support snow?

I suspect “76 inches in 3 days” is bogus. At least for Seattle.

It's actually well supported from newspaper accounts.  They even included the weight of the snow per square foot so I was able to calculate the ridiculous water equivalent the snow had.  So yes....it was a record water equivalent event and it fell as snow.  I suspect an AR meets Arctic air interaction so the cold air meeting the warm moisture effectively wrung the moisture from the air.  I have researched this storm extensively.  

I will say the newspaper accounts made it clear the high depths were on the hills on the east side of town.  At sea level the depth was four feet.  The 76 inches in 3 days was probably about 450 feet and a mile or so east of Puget Sound.

[Phil]

4 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

It's actually well supported from newspaper accounts.  They even included the weight of the snow per square foot so I was able to calculate the ridiculous water equivalent the snow had.  So yes....it was a record water equivalent event and it fell as snow.  I suspect an AR met Arctic air interaction so the cold air meeting the warm moisture effectively wrung the moisture from the air.  I have researched this storm extensively.  

Where exactly was it measured? How often were measurements made? How did they measure the weight of the snow?

I don’t doubt it was a s**tload of snow, but there’s a reason anecdotal reports aren’t included in climate records. They’re often very wrong.

[snow_wizard]

As an aside...the two extraordinary surface lows that were embedded in the AR took the dream track for my area so given the 400 feet of elevation here and being inland the snow should have been less wet than Seattle.  I'm sure it was beyond epic.

[gusky]

48 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

Nice strong -EPO signal on tonight's EPS.  Certainly something we haven't seen yet this winter.

GEFS as well honestly