Sunday, December 21, 2008

Seattle: Snowed in until further notice


Putting it lightly: This is somewhat out of the ordinary! It's fun though. Normally right now we're going back and forth between drizzle and rain with the occasional non precipitating overcast day. So this ain't bad.

When it snows around here the town usually shuts down. For the entire city of Seattle, we have 27 snowplows. That's just enough snowplows to get to all streets in about 5 days. Not exactly great service, but then it usually only snows once per year and only an inch or so. It'll melt before they get to our street, which is just fine for the sledding hill/street in front of our house.

It's difficult to describe just how bad Seattle drivers are in the snow. It's pathetic. I grew up in a land where schools didn't close unless there was 24". Last night we threw the chains on the PT Cruiser and went out to dinner with some friends. I did a perfect handbrake rear wheel slide into a parking spot, it was beautiful. Our friends from Florida were impressed!


Lola will jump 4' to eat a snowball.

Remember the Mahonia? Looks like a space alien with dreads.


The new Markie's hill (the hill in front of my childhood home was known as Marky's hill).

I shouldn't be able to take a picture like this in Seattle! This is across the street.


Here's the warning, hope we get another 6+ so I can skip work tomorrow!
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
240 PM PST SUN DEC 21 2008

EAST PUGET SOUND LOWLANDS-EVERETT AND VICINITY-
SEATTLE/BREMERTON AREA-TACOMA AREA-LOWER CHEHALIS VALLEY AREA-
240 PM PST SUN DEC 21 2008

...WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 AM PST MONDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SEATTLE HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM
WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 AM PST MONDAY. THE WINTER
WEATHER ADVISORY IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.

AN ADDITIONAL 3 TO 6 INCHES OF SNOW IS EXPECTED THROUGH TONIGHT IN
THE PUGET SOUND LOWLANDS AND THE LOWER CHEHALIS VALLEY. A FEW
ISOLATED LOCATIONS COULD RECEIVE AS MUCH AS 8 INCHES. SNOWFALL
AMOUNTS WILL BE VARIABLE FROM LOCATION TO LOCATION.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW MEANS SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL
IS OCCURRING OR IMMINENT. SNOWFALL INTENSITIES WILL BE HEAVY
ENOUGH TO REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO NEAR ZERO AT TIMES.

5 comments:

  1. Yeah, it's only your mother! Fantastic pics of all that snow. Lola seems happy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Mark!!!

    Love the pic of the 'space aliens' plants! Isn't snow great! We have about 2 feet on the ground, with it still coming down. Wolf Creek is up to around 6 feet but noone can get there because of avalanche control!!!
    Stay snug and happy holidays! Love, Lynne and Rick

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey Garf's,
    thanks for the xmas card. Like the blog, we are up to some serious sledding ourselves. Enjoy.
    Tim and Debbie.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Mark
    It's Nick. I went sledding for the first time in seven or so years. Taking snowboarding lessons this January, and hoping for that Premier Snowskate(skateboard on snow without the wheels, and snowboarding w/out bindings) for X-mas.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sweet, and good for you Nick. Now that you live in Utah, take advantage of the best skiing/boarding anywhere. Wish I could more often!

    ReplyDelete

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