Washingtonians...are you bracing for the storm?

[Doberluv]

Time to batten down the hatches. I think maybe I brought the snow with me from Idaho. What gives? I thought I was through with all the shoveling of snow...glad I brought my snow blower with me. I used it today.

And this "historic" and upcoming storm is suppose to hit in the wee hours of the morning. All hell breaks lose around here when it snows. It's usually wet, slushy and VERY hilly. Then all that mess chills and gets icey. Stir in inexperienced snow drivers and lots of traffic and it is a mess. Add the fact that they don't have any snow plows and hardly do a thing to fix the roads. :wall:

The year before last, I think it was, I was visiting here and when it snowed, it was taking people 10 and 13 hours to get home. Buses were no better off. People could go to the bathroom, being stuck on the roads. They were running out of gas. It was horrible. I lucked out when I picked up my daughter from work...the timing I guess was just right and we got home pretty easily. So, this is suppose to be worse! Of course, the media loves to stir up more drama than is usually called for, but who knows?

I went shopping today and made sure I had plenty of vegetables and other stuff. I seem to have quite the nesting instinct. lol.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/more-snow-headed-for-northwest_2012-01-16

picture/video in link

Major Winter Storm from Pacific Northwest to the Northern Rockies

Late Tuesday night through Wednesday, a strong low-pressure system with copious amounts of moisture will approach the Northwest coast. This will set the stage for a major winter storm across the lower elevations and mountains of the Pacific Northwest. Travel could become dangerous or impossible in the cities listed below, just to name a few.

Cities in the winter storm threat zone: Seattle | Olympia | Bellingham | Portland/Vancouver |

Snow from this storm will spread well inland across the interior Northwest into the Northern Rockies. Spokane, Wash., Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Kalispell, Mont. and Missoula, Mont. will all deal with substantial amounts of snow and rough travel conditions.

How Much Snow?

As usual, the big question is always: How much snow am I going to see??? Below is our snow forecast map for the Northwest region the next 48 hours. You can find specific snow forecast total ranges plotted below some of the cities on the graphic. As you can see, we are forecasting some rather hefty amounts across western Washington (including Seattle).

One caveat to this forecast. There remains some uncertainty with how quickly the snow may eventually change to rain on Wednesday. This is particularly the case the farther south you go along the I-5 corridor (i.e. Portland/Vancouver). Snow should change to rain in Portland on Wednesday morning.

Keep in mind, average annual snowfall is only 2.4" in Portland and 5.9" in Seattle, so these amounts are very significant for these metro areas! According to the National Weather Service in Seattle, Wash., snow amounts from this storm could exceed anything seen since November 1985 at Sea-Tac airport.

More perspective: Seattle's snow history

In the mountains (Cascades and Bitterroots), we expect several feet of snow to pile up!

 

[katielou]

No lol.

Snowboarding today and snowboarding tomorrow. More snow = more fun for me.

I guess people are better at driving down here we have some snow just about every year and never really have issues except when it melts.

 

[Kat09Tails]

They're calling for 50mph winds and temps down to 0 with windchill tonight. Work was cancelled. The hatches are as battened down as they're going to get. We got 10 inches today when they were calling for 4 so tomorrow should be *fun*.

 

[HayleyMarie]

he he. SNOW!!! <3

In Fernie/Sparwood or the Elk valley as we like to call it has snow days were they close off the Highway when it snows alot, because in the moutians it just doesnt just snow its SNOWS!!!

Is it weird that Im excited to experiance those snow days??

 

[Miakoda]

I want snow.

 

[Kat09Tails]

I want snow.

I love snow. I really do. I just could do without the power outages. The first serious snowstorm we had here I lost power for 2 weeks with one week of that below freezing.

I remember waking up one fine morning to discover that it was below freezing in my house by 5 degrees. That day I had to pack up and leave.

 

[Kat09Tails]

Oh and here's some pictures from today.

 

[ravennr]

snowball dogs


i would love some snow here. blow it this way!

 

[Psyfalcon]

Where the hell are you guys? Portland has registered a trace, except for the local hills.

Not going to happen. Major rain storm for us. Some snow for WA.
See also: http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/

 

[Romy]

Aww Psy, I wish you guys could get some of the action.

We're pretty much set regardless. Wood stove, twenty cords of wood, oil lamps and candles, a boatload of food and a fresh bag of dog food. If we get desperate for some luxury ingredient the grocery store is in walking distance. My sis and BIL are from Alaska, so if driving has to happen I'm getting them to do it.

 

[Doberluv]

Nice photos Kat! The dogs look so pretty against the white.

Now, where does it tell about the winds? I had no idea. Maybe that's going to be more severe south of Seattle. (?) That's terrible. I hate it when the power goes out, especially now, when I have no alternative like I did in Idaho. (must do something about that one of these years) Sounds like you're all set Romy.

Haley, it's not weird at all. Lots of people like snow. It is fun to play in and it's pretty and quiet. It's just that I've had enough of the stuff the last ten years....snow that stays on the ground all winter long and up to my arm pits deep. (or more) Some years I couldn't even see out my windows. 6 - 7 months of it got to be too much. And the work involved! At least now, I don't have so much to shovel or snow-blow.

The neighbor kids were out trying to sled. But they didn't really have a sled. lol. So, I dug mine out that was buried under a bunch of stuff in the garage that I haven't organized yet....need shelving. Anyhow, I got out my sled that was my Dad's. It's at least 70 -80 years old. He refurbished it and it's very nice. But it still didn't work because the snow is so wet and heavy, it sinks right down. Yucky snow in these here parts.

 

[Zoom]

We need snow like that up in the mountains here. The ski resorts are crying because the slopes are so bare and what snow there is, is all ice crusted and crappy.

Meanwhile, I've got a pile of snow at the end of the yard that is approaching chest height.

 

[Taqroy]

We need snow like that up in the mountains here. The ski resorts are crying because the slopes are so bare and what snow there is, is all ice crusted and crappy.

Seriously. I got two lift tickets for Christmas and have no idea when I'm going to be able to use them because we don't have any snow.

 

[Doberluv]

Well, it's 7 am and I don't see any evidence of any storm here. LOL. It's snowing, but I think it must have just started a little while ago as the places I shoveled are still not all filled up. No wind. Just snow. What's it doing more south? I think that was going to get hit worse. Aren't some of you from areas south of Seattle? I'm north of Seattle.

If there's no snow Taq, will they let you use those lift tickets next year? Or is there an expiration date? Maybe there will be some snow soon...for spring skiing.

 

[Doberluv]

http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/46037665/#46037665

Video shows pictures of Seattle...some of the big hills will be closed. They really have trouble on some of those steep ones.

This says they're expecting 85 mph winds nearer the coast. I think that's what it said....maybe everywhere. (gotta watch again) It looks like it might be worse in Oregon and northern California.

 

[Romy]

Holy cow it's up to the borzois' tuck ups!!!!

I also found out how dogs poo in deep snow. :rofl1: Strider just stood there looking uncomfortable and baffled for a minute, then turned in a circle about nine times to flatten the ground out first.

Edit: managed to get a couple of dark grainy photos.

And it's still snowing. From what I was able to tell driving back and forth on I-5 is that as soon as you hit Nisqually Valley it shifts from warm Tacoma port air to brrr. Earlier in the week north of Tacoma it started getting pretty heavy around fife/federal way up through Sea Tac and then thinned out a bit downtown Seattle.

 

[katielou]

It was windy here at about 3am. We have a good foot or more of snow.

 

[Doberluv]

Wow! You guys have more than I do here, north of Seattle. That much snow is so unusual for the area. I think it's going to be a record breaker.

 

[Zoom]

I'm guessing that March is going to be a hell of a month for snow. Who knows? I think they've been right on amounts once this season and that was with the last system that moved through that only left a couple of inches.

Maybe this system will bring us something?

 

[katielou]

OK so i measured we have 19 inches!