PNW February 2022 - Winters Last Stand

[Meatyorologist]

16 minutes ago, ShawniganLake said:

I remember that March storm well.  Mid 20s with moderate snow the night of the 19th. 32/26 on March 20, 2002 with almost 10” of snow on the ground. 

Wow!!

Glancing through the Spring and Summer of 2002, it was Tim hell levels of cold (though June was reasonable and Summer managed a few weekends of warm weather). What it was especially good at though was sharp periods of unseasonably cold weather.

Hidden on the record books behind the veils of the early 1950's Marches is another bite-y cold snap in the upper 30's, then obviously followed by the mid month cold streak, which actually ended up colder than its predecessor. KSEA didn't exactly freeze over during April, though it did spend an unnervingly large portion of the latter half of the month struggling to crack 50°F.

Early May practiced its best December imitation as it pulled in 49/36 and 52/35 spreads on the 6th and 7th, respectively. June went all June-uary on the 7th and 8th when it gathered a 55/44 and 59/42 pair. Of course less than a week later it was 94°F, but the point stands.

[Cloud]

3 hours ago, gusky said:

Really hope I don't miss out on some cold (snow?) next week in Cannon Beach.

Off-season visits to the beach is one of the best. I had just came back from Cannon Beach on the 13th-15th. It was quite nice to not experience the “summer crowd.”A little bit of rain on Monday but it was really cool to experience the winds and waves. Especially during high tides. 

[BLI snowman]

1 hour ago, Meatyorologist said:

It's been 67 years since KSEA had a subfreezing high in March; 29°F (!) on 3/4/1955.

32°F on 3/8/1951 is the latest subfreezing high on record and the only other time this was accomplished in March. 3/2/1989 very nearly cut this deficit in half but instead squeaked out a 33°F max, exactly one month after failing to eclipse 18°F. I'm sure the half foot of snow blanketing the ground put Seattle snow weenies at ease.

2002 was dead set on breaking new ground as high temperatures plummeted to an impressive 36°F on the 16th, before doubling down further with a 37°F on the 20th; clinching the latest and second latest sub-40°F highs on record. With some (not so minor) pattern tweaking there is an argument to be made that mid-March is our theoretical cut off point for subfreezing highs... maybe a bit later depending on your proximity to Covington.

Mid March is definitely in our historic (way back) wheelhouse for subfreezing highs. 1867, 1870, 1897, and 1906 all produced subfreezing highs after March 10 in Portland or Seattle. Seems like March 1847 may very well have as well but alas, no official stations around at that point.

 

[BLI snowman]

The latest legit arctic front in SEA history during their POR is probably 3/27/1954.

https://www.wunderground.com/history/daily/us/or/portland/ksea/date/1954-3-27

Afternoon high of 35 there, with the wind flipping north around 10am. 33/10 spread by that evening there.

 

[MossMan]

1 hour ago, TacomaWaWx said:

Careful, you’ve now warranted some mossman March snow pictures 

DID SOMEBODY SAY MARCH SNOW PICTURES???

Hell Yeah! 

[Front Ranger]

April 2008 didn't produce sub-freezing highs in the lowlands, but was definitely historic in spots. Had the latest accumulating snowfall on record for some places.

[TacomaWaWx]

9 minutes ago, Front Ranger said:

April 2008 didn't produce sub-freezing highs in the lowlands, but was definitely historic in spots. Had the latest accumulating snowfall on record for some places.

It was pretty epic here. Very memorable for a lot of people who aren’t even weather weenies. 

[Gradient Keeper]

00z GFS Day 1

[Gradient Keeper]

Day 2

[Gradient Keeper]

Hmmm!

[Gradient Keeper]

Day 3

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Icon is rock solid. 

[BLI snowman]

1 minute ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Icon is rock solid. 

That thing digs just a hair better then that's a nice snowy low off the north OR coast. Like the 12z Euro showed.

[Gradient Keeper]

Day 4

[MossMan]

I just told my kids. 
Expect upper 60’s and sun next week now. 

[Gradient Keeper]

Day 5

[Anti Marine Layer]

Only 37 pages so far!

[Requiem]

So... haven't paid much attention to the models for a couple weeks and I come back to some genuine before-240 hour eyecandy. Fun stuff if February delivers again 

[Gradient Keeper]

Day 6

[Gradient Keeper]

[TacomaWaWx]

4 minutes ago, Requiem said:

So... haven't paid much attention to the models for a couple weeks and I come back to some genuine before-240 hour eyecandy. Fun stuff if February delivers again 

Probably won’t be anything since Andrew canceled winter a couple weeks ago

[Gradient Keeper]

Day 7

[Meatyorologist]

1 hour ago, BLI snowman said:

The latest legit arctic front in SEA history during their POR is probably 3/27/1954.

https://www.wunderground.com/history/daily/us/or/portland/ksea/date/1954-3-27

Afternoon high of 35 there, with the wind flipping north around 10am. 33/10 spread by that evening there.

 

Dropping temps to near freezing during the day in late March in Seattle is... wow.

Looked into March 1906 and that was a very strange month. Torched constantly, then bam, intense cold snap, then right back into torching. Weird.

[The Blob]

I'm excited.

[Gradient Keeper]

Day 8

[RentonHill]

4 minutes ago, The Blob said:

I'm excited.

Because it will be during the week?

[Jmankitsap]

1 hour ago, Front Ranger said:

April 2008 didn't produce sub-freezing highs in the lowlands, but was definitely historic in spots. Had the latest accumulating snowfall on record for some places.

I lived in Everett then and that was such a great period...one of the most memorable convergence zone snows because it dumped nearly a foot in Everett in mid April. Weekend before it had been near 70 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

11 minutes ago, TacomaWaWx said:

Probably won’t be anything since Andrew canceled winter a couple weeks ago

Yeah I doubt it’s much below

1000’, maybe some flurries and chilly days with highs around 40.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Gfs isn’t as good with the 2nd shot. 

[Gradient Keeper]

Day 9'er

[BLI snowman]

2 minutes ago, Meatyorologist said:

Dropping temps to near freezing during the day in late March in Seattle is... wow.

Looked into March 1906 and that was a very strange month. Torched constantly, then bam, intense cold snap, then right back into torching. Weird.

Yep, definitely an interesting stretch. Possibly the most dramatic retrograde in the region's history.

Vancouver, WA was 72/46 on March 9. On March 12 it was 30/22. Then just for good measure there was a 90 degree heat wave on April 20.

Very odd behaving El Nino that year. January 1906 was another Nino oddity with the greatest cold wave in interior AK history. Fairbanks was -57/-65 on 1/20.

[TacomaWaWx]

1 minute ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Yeah I doubt it’s much below

1000’, maybe some flurries and chilly days with highs around 40.

Lol yeah I know, my expectations aren’t really too high but atleast it might bring us down to average or slightly below average for the month. Completing the Jim DJF colder than normal trifecta. 

[Gradient Keeper]

Westerlies trying to break through?

[Meatyorologist]

1 minute ago, BLI snowman said:

Yep, definitely an interesting stretch. Possibly the most dramatic retrograde in the region's history.

Vancouver, WA was 72/46 on March 9. On March 12 it was 30/22. Then just for good measure there was a 90 degree heat wave on April 20.

Very odd behaving El Nino that year. January 1906 was another Nino oddity with the greatest cold wave in interior AK history. Fairbanks was -57/-65 on 1/20.

>incoming Phil to tell us that AK airmass did NOT in fact advect into our region

[Gradient Keeper]

Day 10

[Gradient Keeper]

00z GFS 10 Day Rainfall, Snowfall totals

[Gradient Keeper]

GEFS even colder Gorge, Columbia Basin! This is looking very impressive.\

[Front Ranger]

31 minutes ago, Meatyorologist said:

>incoming Phil to tell us that AK airmass did NOT in fact advect into our region

Is Phil ok? Haven't seen much from him lately.

[MossMan]

 

[Phishy Wx]

could it be the months end region wide storm is actually going to happen?  would be a trip if that happened, was joking about it 3 weeks ago.  early clown range too