Seattle 5 day forecast

Today Hot Hi 101 °F

Tonight Clear Lo 69 °F

Thursday Hot Hi 100 °F

Thursday Night Mostly Clear Lo 66 °F

Friday Sunny Hi 92 °F

Friday Night Clear Lo 63 °F

Saturday Sunny Hi 83 °F

Saturday Night Partly Cloudy Lo 63 °F

Sunday Mostly Sunny Hi 84 °F

"We live here because of the cool summers."

I love summer.

Point Forecast:
47.62°N 122.36°W (Elev. 105 ft) Seattle WA

Mon

72° | 50°

Tue

72° | 49°

Wed

77° | 54°

Thu

79° | 54°

Fri

78° | 55°

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WEATHER ADVISORY IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.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.

Special Weather Statement! OMG.

I love these "Special Weather Statements" from NOAA. They're great because they attempt to be professional, but ultimately, they always break down and reveal what "weather wimps" we are up here in the Emerald City. "It's going to be hot, so don't leave your pet in a parked car and check up on grandma" is essentially what this one is telling us. And it's not even going to be that hot, we may hit, gasp, 90 degrees!

And they're always in all CAPS like the sky is falling.

For your enjoyment, ( ) are my comments:

...HOT WEATHER ACROSS WESTERN WASHINGTON THIS WEEKEND...

A STRONG RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE WILL BUILD OVER THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST FRIDAY THROUGH THE WEEKEND. TEMPERATURES ON FRIDAY WILL BE NOTICEABLY WARMER ACROSS WESTERN WASHINGTON UNDER SUNNY SKIES. (They have to say this because it never happens.) OFFSHORE FLOW WILL STRENGTHEN OVER THE WEEKEND WITH MUCH HOTTER TEMPERATURES EXPECTED. SOME SPOTS MAY FLIRT WITH RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES...ESPECIALLY LOCATIONS AWAY FROM THE WATER.

TEMPERATURES ON FRIDAY ARE EXPECTED TO RANGE FROM THE 70S ALONG THE COAST TO THE UPPER 70S AND 80S INLAND. ON SATURDAY AND SUNDAY MOST AREAS SHOULD REACH INTO THE 80S...WITH SOME LOW TO MID 90S POSSIBLE. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT A FEW SPOTS COULD APPROACH OR BREAK THE RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE FOR THE DAY.

MARINE AIR WILL ARRIVE AT THE COAST MONDAY (Collective, community wide sigh of relief) BRINGING COOLER TEMPERATURES. HOWEVER...IT MAY TAKE A COUPLE DAYS FOR TEMPERATURES TO MODERATE OVER INTERIOR WESTERN WASHINGTON.

EXCEPT FOR THE SHORT HOT SPELL IN MID MAY...IT HAS BEEN COOLER THAN NORMAL THE LAST COUPLE MONTHS. (Double tru dat, homie). THIS WILL BE A RATHER ABRUPT TRANSITION TO HOT WEATHER. BE CAREFUL OF THE HEAT IN THE COMING DAYS AND CHECK UP ON THE ELDERLY. STAY HYDRATED AND AVOID VIGOROUS ACTIVITY DURING THE HEAT OF THE DAY. NEVER LEAVE PETS IN A PARKED CAR.

OMG, I was totally thinking of doing vigorous activity on my front porch, but thanks to NOAA, I can blow that off for another week!

Overheard somewhere in Seattle...
"Didn't you read the Special Weather Statement? I'm supposed to stay hydrated. Beer me."

Curse you La Niña!

Tonight Showers Lo 47°F

Tuesday Showers Likely Hi 58°F

Tuesday Night Chance Showers Lo 48°F

This just might be a 'complain-about-the-weather" post. We're supposed to be tough up here, with all this rain and the endless gloomy winters. It makes us hardy. We're not that tough though. Gloom, fine. Drizzle, fine. But rain, wind, cold OR "excessive" heat? Freak out time. If it gets below 50 we complain. If it gets above 80 it's a heat wave and local newscasts tell people to to stay inside and drink water. Seriously.

But right now, it's June for hell sakes! Last summer was like this too. It was cold all summer, we rarely had a day above 70. Never above 80. It rained for every boat show, it was cold for every trip outside. Our tomatoes occasionally grew but not really.

According to NOAA:
La Niña is defined as cooler than normal sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific ocean that impact global weather patterns. La Niña conditions may persist for as long as two years.

I guess we're in year two. The wind is blowing so hard right now that some plywood in our exposed attic rafters just blew onto the lawn. (Why exposed rafters? See the "Porch" posts.)

This shot of our back deck was taken April 18, 2008. I think officially this was the latest ever recorded snowfall in Seattle. What's funny is the BBQ and deck chairs are out. Nice. We just got snow in the mountain passes again last night. Apparently we broke another record: Latest ski season closing ever! But who cares, nobody wants to ski past March. Some summer.

Right this second, we're having a weather phenomenon known only to Pacific Northwesterners called a "sunbreak." The sun shines for a brief period of time, usually before the drizzle starts again. In today's case, a 100% chance of overnight showers. I hope the tourists are having fun in the sun! It's going to last about another 10 minutes.