March 07, 2009

Convergence Zone snow hits I90


My son is turning back from his trip to Snoqualmie Pass for his snowboard lesson. The reason....too much snow and chains are required. The convergence zone has moved south and is now aligned nearly NW-SE...with the heaviest amounts aligned on I90 at and west of the Pass. The radar shows the story...and look at the cam up there--snowy driving. Convergence zones can greatly enhanced the snow at Stevens or Snoqualmie...depending exactly on how they set up. Outside of the convergence zone, some of you getting bright sunshine (see high res sat picture).

The heavier showers are now approaching western Washington....

38 comments:

  1. Guessing Woodinville is sitting in the donut hole right now, it's doing absolutely nothing and I have even witnessed a few sun breaks...weirdness.

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  2. I will keep your pseudo-ominous ellipsis in mind while I watch your show, which is on in 20 minutes.

    "THEY ARE APPROACHING WESTERN WASHINGTON, END TRANSMISSION - BZZT."

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  3. Thanks for updating so frequently Cliff. Its good to have an opinion, and view, of how things are shaping out. And new things that might come down the road. :)

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  4. Yeeehaw! We've had another 4" so far here east of North Bend. It's still coming down lightly. That's on top of the almost 6" we received on Wednesday. Even yesterdays sunshine didn't melt much of it. My garden is freaking out!

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  5. Hail here right now, on Tolt Hill near Carnation.

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  6. It was blue sky and sunny at Lake Stevens this morning, then around noon it all went dark. :)

    It was snowing here a few minutes ago, lightly, but now it has stopped.

    I am taking a trip across the pass tomorrow afternoon, so I'm keeping a close eye on the road conditions up there. I hope it's not too bad, but it'd still be nice to put my snow tires that are on my subaru to good use.

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  7. Kingston, just above the WSF terminal. Some sleet at 1500 hrs which has stopped. High overcast.

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  8. hail/snow near Highway 9 & Maltby Road; grass and trees turning white.

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  9. There's slush (freezing rain?) falling from the sky at sea level near Shilshole. The winds are really picking up, and a thick wall of dark clouds is advancing East. The trees are really swaying and my dog is looking nervous.

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  10. are there better radars to watch then from the Weather.com site?

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  11. Lynnwood/Alderwood is a cluster right now. That was a fast 1", very wet and a lot of standing water.

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  12. I have never seen hail come down as hard and as much as it is right now on Union Hill in Redmond. Its crazy! Its like a white-out, but with hail. And of course, its coating everything. I walked outside and it stung the skin bad. Very, very loud. Looks cool though :)

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  13. Wintry stuff is coming down in Sammamish, that I would describe as

    s-now-leet-ail-lush

    I'm sure the Eskimo's have a better name for it.

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  14. Snow + Rain = Snain
    Snow + Rain + Hail = Snail

    It was snailing in the Madison Valley a bit ago, lumpy rain up on cap hill.

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  15. Gee Cliff, the input from the outer stations was much better w/o accountability.


    Edmonds at 500' above the dock has been rain, slush, hail off and on all afternoon.

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  16. So far, pretty icky out. Not snowing, just gray, blech, and the once in a while hail. Is this how it's going to be tomorrow too?

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  17. On Whidbey in Greenbank looking over at Pt Townsend to Ebeys on Island. Huge black cloud with front blotting all out in its path coming down Admiralty Inlet. Have been gale force winds here since about 6 am with no letup.
    Hail hail the gangs all here. :-)

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  18. Snain, snail, BZZT. AJ, you're on a roll!

    Thanks for all the updates & for your site Cliff. It's so helpful that you promote that people post their local conditions. It has saved me numerous times, as I do my work all around King Co.

    It doesn't have to be perfectly predicted - it's just so great that it's actively discussed & we can see all the variences.

    The clouds seem to be skirting the Lake Union area all day.

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  19. Just had a nice flash of lightning and some decent thunder here in Ballard... accompanied by some very sudden wet snow/rain.

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  20. Here in Woodinvile today we had a few on/off showers mainly int he form of sleet/small hail, but nothing accumulation.

    EDIT! I just had a couple flashes of lightning with a rumble of thunder! WhooHoo!! :OD(smile)

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  21. Lake Stevens,

    We just lost power for 30 minutes at around 6:00pm. This is tne 2nd time today (first time was this morning around 9 or 10).

    We had a strong windy gust blow through with heavy snow for about 10 minutes (with blue sky overhead, weird). It's all stopped now and power is back on.

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  22. Thunder and Lightning in Magnolia at 6:30 PM Weird!

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  23. BIG lightning flash and very loud thunder on Union Hill in Redmond. Wow! That was loud. Shook the whole house. Yay! :)

    Currently snowing&hailing, which it has been doing for the last couple hours. (600')

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  24. It seems that there was more to this storm than predicted...snow was so heavily focused on...that the wind was almost forgotten, except in the Frasier outflow area...

    Lacey, WA recorded several gusts in the 30+mph range, including one long gust over 40mph! No power outage (thank you)...but geeze...this turned out to be a full on storm!

    Snow is nothing around this time of year...but wow...what a little punch. :)

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  25. Brian...perhaps you were closer to the storm cell. :o)

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  26. South Hill Puyallup:
    Sunny and windy most of the day. It got really dark around 1400, ice pellets, snow and wind for 5 minutes, then back to sunny and windy. The wind is cold, but all in all a nice day.

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  27. Cliff,

    Hope your having an update sometime tonight. :) Would love to hear how things are shaping up. Looks to me like the CZ is done in the central sound.

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  28. Styrofoam 'snow' total about 1/2 inch Crown Hill 335ft. The expected one clap wonder thunder, which was much closer than usual. Often it seems to be out over Bellevue or the foothills, but this was in the city.

    Cleared up nicely right after and had some nice moonshine during snowball fight with the kids.

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  29. Location: Snoqualmie Ridge - Looks like the convergence zone is moving back north and will be right between I-90 and Bothell (522). We picked up a quick 2-3" a couple hours ago and saw a flash of lightning and heard thunder.

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  30. Hey Robbyrob..

    I`m not sure about the CZ moving back north. Looks like it`s continuing it`s track southward with just an area of showers passing near the Seattle area currently.

    Also... looks like we may be done with snow tonight here in the central/north sound, though some spotty showers could still be seen. But now the main focus will be the cold dry air and cold over night lows. Looks like we dip down into the 20`s the next few nights.

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  31. East Bellevue at 210' elevation just west of Lake Sammamish... heavy snow, 2" down already, and no sign of letting up. 31.8 degrees.

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  32. Per WSDOT cam, it appears to be snowing at the US2/204 interchange up around Everette.

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  33. Sammamish -- maybe 3/4" of an inch. Nothing like Bellevue apparently. Clear skies right now -- stars out.

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  34. Lake Stevens, 7:40am 300ft elevation. Temps 31f. Little to no wind (less than 2mph)

    Heavy snow now, has been snowing for a couple hours with good accumulation so far.

    From looking at the radar it looks like the convergence zone has set in up here, farther north than it was on saturday (because we didn't get any snow yesterday).

    We also had a massive hail storm during the night, woke me up early around 2am or so if I had to guess. It was the loudest I've ever heard.

    Time to test out those snow tires. I'm headed to Shelton in about 15 minutes and then crossing snoqualmie pass around 3:30pm today...and again tonight on the way back to lake stevens.

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  35. Lakewood, WA - Snowing and sticking

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  36. Thanks Cliff!

    I never missed you on KUOW and now you are the first stop for weather for me online.

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