Lots of Snow in the Mountains....and the Seattle Times Gets it Wrong Again

 First, we had strong winds, taking out the power to a quarter-million local residents.  And then snow.

The vigorous system that moved through on Sunday and a second disturbance behind spread substantial snow over the regional mountains above approximately 4000 ft., with 1-2 feet on the ground in many locations.

The image at 8 PM at the Paradise Visitor Center on Mount Rainier (about 5000 ft) was a snowy dream, with the rising moon illuminating a winter wonderland.

Want to see how much difference a year makes?

Below are maps of the regional snow water equivalent (the amount of water in the snowpack) for last year (left) and this year (right) for 11 PM on October 26.

Can you tell the difference? 😊

Virtually nothing last year.   Bountiful snowpack this year.

And by tomorrow at 5 PM, there will be even more (see additional totals below).

Not enough to think about downhill skiing, but a good start, and a welcome beginning to the winter snowpack after a low previous year.  

A very strong atmospheric river will approach the region on Friday-Sunday, but I will leave that to my blog.

Seattle Times Errors Again

As long as I am talking about atmospheric rivers, I can't help but note the major errors in recent Seattle Times stories on this topic.   Consider the atmospheric river graphics they provided a few days ago (below).

Not very good. 

 It starts by stating that atmospheric rivers are "flowing columns of condensed water vapor". 

Water vapor is not "condensed".  It is vapor... .a GAS.  Most of the water associated with atmospheric rivers is not condensed water (that is, clouds or precipitation), but water vapor.

Water vapor that is forced to condense into clouds and precipitation as it is forced to rise by local terrain. 

    

They claim that the water vapor is found one mile above the ocean.  This is simply false.

 The claim that atmospheric rivers "generate a series of storms" is wrong.   Atmospheric rivers are the result of larger-scale circulations and storms.   The Seattle Times confused the chicken and the egg.

This error-filled Seattle Times graphic is not an isolated example of poor research and writing. I could show you a dozen more.  Ok, how about one?

Below is their graphic about the convergence zone and rainshadow.  They have the air approaching the Olympics from the southwest (which is fine), but then they show cold air from the Fraser River Valley. Wrong, wrong, wrong. 

And then they make the same mistake about "condensed water vapor" coming off the Pacific and repeat the error of the water being about one mile off the ocean.   

The quality of the scientific "journalism" in the Seattle Times is now so poor that you really can't trust what you read in it.  Just a shame.

The Storm Has Arrived

 The promised storm has begun.  Tens of thousands of customers have already lost power, mainly in the southern Puget Sound region at this point...and more will surely follow.

The composite weather radar image is extraordinary (see image around 7:40 PM below).  The low center was then along the central Washington coast.  We can only see this because of the Langley Hill radar near Hoquium (thanks, as always, to Senator Cantwell for helping to make that radar a reality).

A few hours earlier, the low center was also evident in visible satellite imagery (below).

As of 7 PM, winds have exceeded 70 mph on the coast and at Crystal Mountain, with and over 50 mph over the south Sound area (see below).

With low pressure along the coast and higher pressure inland, strong easterly winds from the east descended the western slopes of the Cascades, contributing to power outages from Issaquah and Black Diamond to Enumclaw and out to the Sound.

This has resulted in massive power outages in these locations (see Puget Sound Energy outage map at 7:30 PM)

In Seattle, only about 850 customers have lost power.  

The numbers increase greatly in the hours ahead.  

The latest UW/Seattle Windwatch prediction of maximum winds in Seattle suggests that winds will peak around midnight, as the low center passes to the north (see prediction below).    This early in the season, with lots of leaves on the trees and untested new growth, one can expect substantial power loss with such winds.

Showtime in 2-3 hours for central Puget Sound.  Time to make sure all my devices are charged up.