Announcement: The Northwest Weather Workshop will be on Feb 28th/March 1st in Seattle.
The NW Weather Workshop is the big annual gathering of those interested in the weather of the Pacific Northwest and everyone is welcome. For more information, including the agenda and registration information, please check out: https://www.atmos.washington.edu/pnww/
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Bellingham and parts of northwest Washington are getting hammered with large amounts of snow today, with totals of 6-12 inches being typical. Here is a picture I just received from RG Stout near the Bellingham Airport, where there is already about 8 inches already on the ground.
Or check out some of the WSDOT cams from the Peace Arch at the Canadian border down to Bellingham. Enough to make you want to buy a pair of chains.
The snow has pushed south to Mt. Vernon and southwest to the San Juan Islands, where a foot of snow has fallen on Mt. Constitution and Eastsound has several inches (see pictures from the Landmark Hotel in Eastsound)
We knew this was coming....as I have shown you for a several days, the high-resolution models were emphatic about the snow potential over NW Washington. The reason? A battle between cool, dry northeasterly flow coming out of the Fraser River Gap and warmer, moisture southerly/southwesterly winds pushing from the south as a warm front approaches.
Here are the local surface observations around 4 PM. Temperature is shown in red, dew point by the blue numbers on the lower left of the circles. S means snow. You can see the northeasterly winds pushing out of the Fraser and extending southwestward to the Olympic Peninsula.
0519 PM HEAVY SNOW 5 SSE DEMING 48.76N 122.18W
02/23/2014 M10.0 INCH WHATCOM WA TRAINED SPOTTER
SNOWFALL IN PAST 11 HOURS. STILL SNOWING HEAVILY.
ELEVATION 283 FEET.
0330 PM HEAVY SNOW 2 SSW BELLINGHAM 48.72N 122.48W
02/23/2014 M6.0 INCH WHATCOM WA TRAINED SPOTTER
TOTAL SNOWFALL AS OF 330 PM. TEMP 32 DEGREES. ELEVATION
130 FEET.
0404 PM HEAVY SNOW BELLINGHAM 48.74N 122.47W
02/23/2014 M7.0 INCH WHATCOM WA PUBLIC
ELEVATION 700 FEET. NEAR WHATCOM FALLS PARK. STILL
SNOWING.
0401 PM HEAVY SNOW WNW BELLINGHAM 48.75N 122.47W
02/23/2014 M8.0 INCH WHATCOM WA TRAINED SPOTTER
TOTAL SNOWFALL SO FAR. 3 INCHES FELL IN PAST 3 HOURS.
STILL SNOWING HEAVILY. ELEVATION 30 FEET.
0337 PM HEAVY SNOW 1 N FERNDALE 48.87N 122.59W
02/23/2014 E8.0 INCH WHATCOM WA PUBLIC
ESTIMATED SNOWFALL MEASUREMENT SINCE 745 AM SATURDAY.
SOME BLOWING OF THE SNOW.
0343 PM HEAVY SNOW W EASTSOUND 48.70N 122.91W
02/23/2014 M6.5 INCH SAN JUAN WA TRAINED SPOTTER
TOTAL SNOW SINCE YESTERDAY. MEASURED 3.5 AT 730 AM THIS
MORNING. ELEVATION ABOUT 150 FEET. TEMP 33 DEGREES. STILL
SNOWING.
You get the message...
The cold air has been pushing south...but things will change tonight/tomorrow am as the air warms, precipitation fades, and downslope flow (easterlies) develop over Cascades. No school in Bellingham tomorrow, but south of Mt. Vernon, life will be normal. Sorry kids.
Left Lakewood around noon, driving back to north Whatcom County. When we hit the road it was 45 degrees with no precipitation. Light rain in Tacoma. Heavier rain through Seattle & Everett. Swirling snowflakes and light wind in Mount Vernon. Real snow and wind in Bellingham with somewhat messy roads. Problems really began north of B'ham due to the northeaster and accompanying snow drifts. By the time I reached our place in Lynden the drifts were already 4 feet high. Definitely qualifies as one of our more notable "blizzards" of late, though it would take much more snow, over a longer period of time, to rank big time.
ReplyDelete5 inches here is Oso, north snohomish county.
ReplyDelete5" here on south Fidalgo Island (410') light mist and 32F now.
ReplyDeleteI got 7.5 inches across the border from Blaine in Surrey. It started snowing sometime in the morning of Saturday but melted until the afternoon when it started to accumulate. 2" by 6pm on Saturday. It finally stopped snowing at 8pm Sunday. I now have 7.5" on the ground. What a great weekend!
ReplyDelete8" in Bellingham, near sea level, stopped snowing, light wind, 28 degrees.
ReplyDelete16" in Maple Falls and it's begun to snow again after tapering off last night!
ReplyDeleteOf course after bashing the idea that Bellingham gets more snow on average than lower elevations along Hood Canal, for the first time in at least half a decade of winter seasons, that might actually be true...
ReplyDeleteThe real problem is that records for the Kitsap side of the water are HORRIBLE. I would love to research snowfalls from the great snows of say, 1950 or 1918, etc. but weather records here are awful.
Looks like 9 or 10 inches here on the east side of Orcas Island! We have been waiting for this for a long time.
ReplyDeleteI think its starting to heat up, as the snow is getting heavy and branches are starting to break.
From Ferndale on top of the hill off Thornton (elev. 283ft). Early Tuesday morning (147a)...All is calm on the nor'easter front. Well, as calm as a nor'easter can be at this point. We got hammered pretty good up here. All arterial roads in Ferndale and north county are slick as snot by way of a decent snow/ice pack. I just went for a walk to clear my head and I'm glad I did. There is something to be said for taking a snow walk in the early hours of the morning. Peaceful, quiet, perfect.
ReplyDeleteSchool is cancelled for the 2nd consecutive day in Ferndale. Good call. Either way, who doesn't LOVE A SNOW DAY? or two..?
Tuesday morning just outside Lynden (Canadian border) & the northeaster is blowing as hard as ever. Not sure how much actual snowfall there was over the past few days, but thanks to the wind, some drifts on our place are upwards of 5 feet high.
ReplyDeleteThe school cancellations today are necessary. It's an ice rink out there ~ and no amount of plowing yesterday would have prevented it. Unfortunately, the ice & wind don't make for the lovely snow day one imagines, but it's nice to have the sun shining today!
2" Saturday
ReplyDelete6" Sunday
4" Monday
The snow depth was 7.5" Sunday evening 9.5" Monday evening in Surrey BC