Steven's Weather Vortex

Want to read more about weather in Seattle, and weather events around the globe? Don't trust the likes of TV weathermen like Jeff Renner? Head on over to Steven's Weather Vortex.

Seriously, Steven knows his stuff. So much so that he's getting a PhD in it. Subscribe and get the low down on weather.

Wake Me When It's Sunny Again

It's weird - I thought I had tabs on when the summer was over and fall set in around here in Seattle. But it feels like summer ended early this year. Consider:

• It's 6:30 PM and it's cloudy and rather dark outside.
• The temperature is 62 degrees right now, but the overnight low is 53.
• The 10-day forecast has our highs in the 50s.

I could have sworn that in years past, it wasn't until October that we had this sort of weather. Hmm, maybe those are just wishful memories.

OK, at least we have a bounty of fall produce to look forward to, not least of which is no less than a gazillion varieties of apples. And cider. Yum!

To Anyone Thinking Of Moving To Seattle

See, rumors are sometimes true. It does rain all the time here, even in the summer. Trust me, we've all sold our cars and purchased boats of various shapes and sizes to get around the city. Umbrellas are state-issued, and Nordstrom has some designer rain coats on sale. Starbucks is considering throwing instant coffee powder out their store windows and into the water to attract customers. And I hear there's some Noah guy building a big wooden boat in Lake Union.

But seriously, it has been an unusually wet July.

Pineapple Express

Yes, we're in the midst of a Pineapple Express this weekend, which is a Kindergarten way of saying "warmer and wetter than usual", weather-wise. Combine that with an earlier-than-normal daylight saving time this year, and most of Seattle is currently groggy and gray.

This Is What Happens When It Snows In The Northwest

This video pretty much describes how people drive when it gets unseasonably snowy and icy up here in the Pacific Northwest, and people try to drive. Admittedly this is Portland, Oregon and not Seattle. But trust me, the the driver mentality is very close to the same.

Seattle Snow 2007

No, it's not deja vu. But maybe it's history repeating itself. First we had a snow storm. Then, we had another snow storm. Then, we had a wind storm. Now that we're in a new year, I guess it's back to the snow storm.

This one wasn't as bad. Some buses actually had chains installed from the get-go. And, Seattle didn't get nearly as covered as it did last time. Still, folks in the outlying areas had trouble getting into work today because of snow and ice on the roads.

One consolation: at least it's pretty outside.

Seattle Windstorm 2006

Last month was the snowstorm. This month brings a windstorm. And we're not even into the wintery portion of the winter season. What gives?

Seattle weathered the storm in various ways, largely dependent on location. Downed trees and power outages were the primary problems, as were flooding and mudslides. Seattle City Light reported 170,000 without power this morning. And, there were places that felt the effects of too much water falling too quickly. The Seattle Times and PI newspapers couldn't print their dailies because of power outages at the presses. The online editions didn't suffer, however. As for us, the central city was fine this morning, as far as I could tell - no power outages, no flooding.

Redmond and Bellevue were another matter. All of the intersections I went through while driving around this morning were without power, which means no functioning traffic lights. Lots of old trees, fences, signs, and the like were uprooted and toppled. Someone calling into KUOW reported the biggest traffic backups in Bellevue to be because of people lining up for gasoline (2hr waits) or Burger King.

Island County and the Skagit Valley are apparently doing worse than King County. The same situation there: power outages, downed trees, and the like. The problem there is that there's more damage, and people are more spread out, which means it's harder to get power and services back up to a lot of people quickly.

It's been an interesting November and December, from the weather standpoint. Who knows what the new year will bring?

A Second Snow Storm

It snowed again this week, this time Wednesday night. A lot of people in the neighborhood came outside around 10pm to make snowmen, throw snowballs, and enjoy the winter dusting that made the familiar look unfamiliar. The snow was transient, however: most of it had melted off by the next morning.

Seattle Snow 2006

So we had a bunch of snow in Seattle yesterday. A "bunch" here is just a few inches, but with a city that's not prepared, filled with drivers equally so, that can be more than enough to shut things down. And guess what? That's exactly what happened.

First, some pictures (not mine):

• Pug in the snow!
• Icy roads
• Snowy driveways
• Snow in mid-air
• Snow man...er, snow monster!

The fun began in an anticlimactic sort of way. On Sunday night, the weather reports were wishy-washy. Would we get snow? Would we not? No one was sure. Turns out that we did get some, but it melted before the morning commute was underway. During the workday, snow would intermittently fall, but nothing seemed to stick. People gazed at the snow outside of their windows, and then got back to work.

Then, around 5pm, the bottom fell out. Tons of snow started falling, and sticking. Cars filled the streets and packed down the snow into sheets of ice. Soon, cars were spinning out and traffic came to a halt. On the way out from work, I helped push a car that was having trouble climbing up a rather shallow hill. Looking back, I saw a long lineup of cars waiting to meet this same hill, one after the other. I didn't stick around to see who else would end up being stuck.

I thought I was being smart by taking the bus in the morning. "Surely," I thought, "surely the buses will be prepared to truck folks home in this inclement weather." The short answer: they weren't. The buses didn't have chains on them, and it took hours to deliver the chains to the buses before they could commence their trucking.

After about an hour and half of waiting outside in the cold, snowy weather, a generous soul came by and offered a ride to those going to his neighborhood...my neighborhood! I hitched a ride along with two others. Fortunately the guy had a 4-wheel-drive car, so I felt pretty good about our chances of getting home without incident. Now, you'd think that we'd be home in no time, right? Wrong. It took 30 minutes to get from the parking deck to the highway, all because of traffic jams. Once on the highway, things were eerily fine; sure, there was snow on the road, but there was very light traffic. We arrived in our neighborhood about 15 minutes after hitting the highway, happy to finally have returned home.

Sound bad? Actually, we were some of the more lucky commuters yesterday. Another guy on my team took 4 hours to get from work to home (a trip that likely takes 20 or so minutes, usually), in large part to the other drivers who couldn't navigate the snow and ice. Even worse, I heard of one person who lives in Lynnwood that left work at 5pm, and arrived at 4am. That's right - 11 hours of wintery commuting hell.

The moral of this story? The only one I could glean was: at the sign of a snowstorm with accumulation, leave early. Someone that left before the 5pm downpour got home in a matter of minutes. Ah, hindsight: I shake my fist at thee!

Like Clockwork

This past week has been beautiful, weather-wise. We witnessed more than one afternoon of 70-degree weather here in Seattle, with clear skies and great views of the distant, snow-topped mountains.

And now, here's the weather outlook for the weekend:


That's right, a wonderfully overcast, cool morning, with a 60% chance of rain. Thanks Ma Nature!

I know, wait a month or so and it'll be perfect. Still, it feels like a conspiracy to me.

Seattle Rain

They say it doesn't rain all that much in Seattle. The coming week doesn't really support that argument.



And then people wonder why we're the coffee capital of the U.S. Trust me, you need chemical enhancements to brighten your day if you're faced with this weather for a season or two.

The Day That Didn't Break The Record

Yesterday, Sunday, January 15, 2006, it didn't rain. This means our 27 day rain streak is over. Worse, today begins a new wave of rain.

So, Seattle continues to get rained on, yet doesn't have the pleasure of at least breaking a record while at it.

The kicker: last night around 9pm, we were on I-5 south going towards the city. I noticed several rain drops on my windshield, and they were not from the cars ahead. "Rain!", I exclaimed. "Glad to see our streak is still going." Not so; according to co-workers, the rain gauge is in Sea-Tac, not Seattle. What's up with that? At least measure the rain that falls in Seattle when you talk about a Seattle rain streak.

To all of this I hurumph and go back to watching the rain fall...

Rainy Seattle

Funny joke? No, it really has been raining quite a bit in Seattle this past week or so. Usually the winter time brings drizzle in the city and snow in the mountains. It's been raining pretty hard lately, and it's been warmer than usual. According to this article, it's rained over a third of an inch for the past 10 days. This has led to landslides and a rising snow level (yesterday reported at 5,000 feet on King 5).

That doesn't bode well for the slopes. Ironically, last year it was the lack of precipitation that led to a short season. Now, they're getting it, but unfortunately not in a powdery white form.

From the wacky weather department

It's been a month of crazy weather. The northeast and midwest is getting pummeled with snow, while the west is enjoying balmy temperatures. Lack of snow is closing slopes near Seattle, including Snoqualmie and Stevens.

Last year around this time, it was in the 30s-40s in Seattle, colder on the slopes, and there was a great snowpack for most of the season. This is pretty much the complete opposite. The temperatures on the passes are well above freezing, and the rain that has been falling has pretty much wiped out any snow cover that's fallen this season.

I'm not a snow sports fan by any means, so I'm not partial to high or low amounts of snow on the mountains over the winter season. But, I really lament people losing their jobs because of a wacky twist in the weather.