I live in Snohomish County. About as far north in Lynnwood as you can get without actually fetching up inside the Everett city limits.
We had some street closures in the neighborhood, which basically blocked direct access to SR 99 southbound. Worst thing I had to cope with was a 10 minute detour. Nothing like what I hear many others have been going through.
Funny, I don't recall last year's Hanukkah storm at all. The one that really stuck in my mind, but good, was the ice storm of November 27. That truly sucked. It came in at about 5:00 pm, and half an hour later, the entire north end of Metro Seattle ground to a stop.
I got caught in that, and my 21 mile commute home took 6 hours and 45 minutes. And I was one of the ones whose cars didn't get hopelessly stuck.
The problem was, everyone around me, including truckers who should have known better, were losing their heads and revving their engines and spinning their tires and skidding all over the place. Chocolate Jesus, if they'd kept their speeds down and made use of the traction they had, those roads would have been passable. Albeit marginally, but passable.
Ah, the memories.
Here is a YouTube video of the festivities.
And here is another YouTube video which epitomizes my feelings about the hijinks I witnessed that night.
Fortunately, I've been down with a head cold the last five days, so I didn't have to try to drive through our latest little gift from Old Mother Nature, until the worst of it was all over.
cold and clear in tokyo (just got dark) this is the tokyo tower cam
Hmm.
That video wouldn't play on Firefox. I had to fire up IE, which is the very first time I've done that to render content from the Internet on this PC since I first launched it back in April. I also had to sit through a ad for Claritin. (Don't even get me started on the subject of Claritin, a.k.a. Loratadine.)
The epicenter seems to have been Lewis County, about 100 miles south of here, which really got slammed. 5 deaths. 300 people had to be pulled out by rescue workers. 20 miles of I-5 through Lewis County is out of commission and closed.
The bit that passed through here must have been merely the very thinnest northern edge of something much more massive.
I'm running Firefox.
Works fine for me.
Sorry you're having trouble.
12 deg F this AM in the Boston area.
Some wind last night, but not what I'd call strong compared to 100mph.
First snow storm of the year on SunPM/MonAM, accompanied by the typical "OMFG it is teh slippery!111!! how do I drive in this!?!" of a first-of-season snowfall.
I'd guess the roughest part of the weather out here was dealing with traffic.
40+ and clear in the Denver metro, sorry to hear some folks got soggy. :-(
This is why I make sure that not only is my house up eleivation a little, its also one of the higher ones in the subdivision. nothing is more satisfying then hearing all of your nebighors complaing about flooded basments while yourse is dry 
(ya im evil like that).
We just got a dusting of snow here yesterday, mabey 1/4 inch...dobut its that much. very butifull outside. hell of a lot better then sateray when every thign was covered in a 1/4 inch of ice...driving sucked that day...but it was fun to watch the idiots with 4wd who think they can speed. 4wd dosn't help a bit on ice...in fact it causes you to slip sideways...right into the ditch...sure if we had hills you would want it but this is faltland country.
Light dusting of snow so far here in the Baltimore/DC corridor. I expect to see the schools and government to close any minute.
Just got a call from a coworker stuck on Georgia Ave in MD. Everyone in MD, as usual, is driving in OMGWTFBBQ mode over a snowflake or two.
Doing well here in the Coastal Northern NJ area. We're expecting a dusting, but that's all, and it's around 26 degrees. We had snow on Sunday, but only an inch or so.
Here's hoping Washington State dries out soon.
Portland, Maine - we got about 9" of snow Monday/Tuesday, but the mountains west of here got 15"+ (that shaking is from the ski area owners dancing for joy).
I would love the snow if I didn't have to drive in it or shovel it - like if I had a manservent or something. Like maybe George Clooney...
Whoops, drifted off there for a minute.
Punkster I don't miond driveing in snow...its teh ice that gets me...we get those damm frezing ran stomes and tis like an ice rink out there.
Chicago got a nice 4-6 inch dusting of snow. Business as usual here...
I hope you and yours are OK.
Had first snow of the year on Sat night in Toronto. Sunday night we had rain. Some light dusting over the last few days.
In the Bay Area, we may have seen the tail end of your storm yesterday morning. Just enough to mess up the morning commute and we do need more rain. In SF, it's overcast, high 50s for temps, supposed to rain tomorrow.
We had a massive nasty snow/sleet/rain storm (I call these "slopstorms", because that's just what they are) on Saturday. And of course, everybody panicked and thought they were going to get snowed in, so the grocery stores in the area were pandemonium on wheels. I was so lucky to have that day off where I work, because Saturday is the one day of the week I usually almost never have off!
I'm rather irritated with the city government of South Milwaukee for letting the now-frozen slop from that storm just sit there on the sidewalks in front of Grant Park. We had another snowstorm last night, but fortunately it was normal snow. But I thing that these slopstorms are going to become more common thanks to global warming because we had a lot of those last winter here.
5-6 inches of snow on Saturday in the Twin Cities, followed by another 4 yesterday. Arrival timed itself for the evening commute, and a normally 30-40 minute drive took 2:15, and it would have been longer if I hadn't bailed off the freeways and taken side streets.
This morning: clear, bright, sunny, crisp, cold. 8 degrees. More snow Thursday. We're in a winter pattern that we haven't had in several years, where we get frequent small snowstorms and consistently cold temperatures. It is not forecast to rise above 30 anytime in the forseeable future.
'bout time we had a real winter in Minnesota.
ti jsut got stupid cold outside and windy....so not onyl is it cold, all the snow is blowing away...oh well..
Sitting pretty at 500 ft above sea level in NE Portland (Alameda ridge). Most of the damage seems to have been on the coast and coast range. Some flooding in the lower elevation in SE PDX and on streets and freeway that could not handle the runoff. Since I have no reason to leave my neighborhood, I have not been effected, although I did drive out to Sandy, Oregon to visit my horse on Tuesday. The Sandy River was up but not at flood stage, not much wind, no rain and the temp was about 61. A very pleasant day.
Here in central Florida, the temperature right now's about 65 or 70 and bright sunlight. The low this morning was in the 40s.
I'd trade a lot of cool air (believe me, this feels like a breath from Paradise compared to the usual temperatures) in exchange for rain. The whole SE is drought-stricken, and some of bandits who run homeowner's associations have had to be told to shelve the idea of fining residents for not watering their yards.
Sunny and 68 degrees here in north Floriduh. What is this 'snow' of which you speak?
(j/k, am originally from Ottawa)
take care,
'bout time we had a real winter in Minnesota.
Agreed. Been skiing twice so far this month........... which equals the total number of times we managed to enjoy the snow last winter....... skiing that is.
Cold and humid here in Northern Virginia (Alexandria, VA specifically). 30 degrees with 90+% humidity...oh yes...and snow.
Dark and grey and shitty for the time being. Early next week it's supposed to be back up to the 50s and possibly even high 60s (by Monday at least).
Portland, OR is mostly okay now; flooding of surface streets was a problem but seems to have gone down most places. Toward the coast was a bigger mess, though. For a while on Monday, there was no way to get to the coast at all: every highway over the Coast Range was closed, and even HWY30 to Astoria had mudlides over both lanes. Oh, and I-5 to Seattle, too.
But in sadder news, the nation's largest Sitka Spruce tree snapped in half. The thing was older than Columbus.
its 26 outs side...at least the wind dided down a bit, so with windchill its a balmy 11..woohoo. Hey it may get up to 36 by friday (not counting wind) .
stupid cold
It's 31F and snowy here in the DC Metro.
the high today was 30...that was at 12 AM
allright Im done whineing about the cold for today...best part is it jsut keeps gettign colder and windier...why oh why did i stay in Il? it is a very clear sign that my wife loves me though...shes from Pasadena...
Flagstaff's doing just fine. Mostly sunny, low in the mid-20s, high in the upper 50s/lower 60s, low winds. Forecast for snow this weekend, but I'm doubtful it'll do diddly. Our weather patterns have gone wonky for the last 10 years, and we're really not getting snow anymore, so I'll wait and see.
And Jesse, I remember those early 90s storms in Seattle. Especially the giant snowstorm in 90? 91? about this time. I just remember leaving work at about 11 PM and having to weave through all the snowdrift-covered cars that were just parked in every lane on the 405. Abandoned in place until folks could get to them in the next few days, no snowplows to be seen, and if'n I remember correctly KING5 flat went off the air (I think their transmitter broke or something due to the winds and snow). At least it gave us all a couple of days off to play in the white stuff.
Good luck to everyone in the NW and keep safe.
Here in Georgia, we've got extreme drought, as you probably know. But not to worry: Gov. Sonny Perdue's big multifaith prayer session will get us out of this jam. Yeah, that's the ticket...
HarryTuttle:
I remember that storm, too. It was 1990, wasn't it? I was living in Seattle, working for an insurance company (!). Man, that was chaos. It just kept snowing, and then it all froze -- hard. We had claimants who'd abandoned their cars on, say, the Ship Canal bridge, and said cars had been hit dozens of times. Ugh. Seattleites and Portlanders just have no idea how to deal with snow.
Oh, and the City of Seattle, to save all the little lane-markers ("turtles"), had put a 2-inch strip of rubber on the bottom of many snowplow blades. So when it froze, the snowplows ran around polishing the streets like big yellow Zambonis.
Good times.
Twenty-one degrees currently in Mad City, WI. But we've got 6 more inches of snow last night, which may have taken care of the snow turned into frozen ice problem we had from earlier this week. We're in for more snow either tonight or tomorrow.
My neighbor laughingly asked me this morning, as he was shoveling snow, whether I had asked for all this snow.
Let me tell you it's getting wide and deep around here...
One of our main thoroughfares, East Washington, was bumper to bumper this morning. Or rather, from what one bus driver said, a veritable "parking lot." As a result, Metro buses have been running off schedule in the mornings, although by afternoon, they've recovered. It's murder trying to make your connections when one or both buses are late.
Some of my students sent urgent messages via e-mail from the boonies outside Madison that they were seriously socked in and that digging out would take a day or so. We're one week away from the semester's end.
my folks live just outside of rochester on a farm nestled in a bend of the black river. fortunately for them great grandpa built the farm up on the hillside - it's the pasture that's under water. they've had trouble getting around the roads though. my uncle lives in chehalis, also at a high elevation. i don't know whether he was planning on something like this back when he bought the place in the 70's, but either way he must be pretty happy not to be underwater. my thoughts go out to you and yours.
Yesterday here in Corpus Christi it was 39 at 6am, had to turn the heater on. 8 hrs later I had the a/c back on. Good luck to all you folks in the NW.
Been snowing for seven days straight in the Adirondack mountains. But for us, it means great skiing.
It's ice I worry about. Last winter was a constant freeze thaw cycle that is far worse than below zero temps.
Twenty-one degrees currently in Mad City, WI. But we've got 6 more inches of snow last night,...........
I remember, way back when... very early 90's, an 18 incher in Madison........ with lightning to boot. I was the only one who made it to work (lived just off campus......... University Ave.), so I was the go-between with the president of the UW System and the governor (T. Thompson) who were conversing about closing down things early.
Tommy Thompson............ yikes!
dog is some sort of husky mix she lovd it and wanted to stay out side..stupid dog
moonglum -- don't do that.
HarryTuttle & stickler --
There were two major storms I remember from the early 90s.
One was around Christmas, 1991. It was my first trip into Seattle proper. I'd taken Amtrack up from the Bay Area to speak with a potential Angel investor about the start-up I was running then; we still didn't have our funding fully in place. (A month or so later, we landed VC money -- Wilson Sonsini were our counsel for people who know what that means.) Ended up moving to New Hampshire as the money came from the 128 corridor (Cambridge, natch), and ended up getting in bed with DEC. Just before they laid off (literally) 50,000 engineers all within a 50 mile radius of our headquarters.
I ended up throwing the fucking Boston Globe in Nashua, New Hampshire all winter from 2:30 in the morning till 7 am, at 20-30 below zero, from December till June. A grown-up (and I wasn't yet, but I had a wife and three daughters, the oldest girl only five) does what one must to take care of their family. Even if it means driving half-way across the state every day to sell stuff to broke couples across a kitchen table... and every morning at 20 below before the wind chill from driving the car with the window down, throwing the newspaper from a station wagon through the frosty snow.
But all that was in the future.
Right then, Seattle was packed with snow. I arrived at the train station and got in my taxi which took me to the Marriott, the one hotel I'd known to ask for.
The Marriott is all the way back at Sea-Tac, and we slid all over the icy road from the King Dome through a Seattle which had completely shut down, due to the worst winter storm in years.
The next day, my fingers almost fell off, trying to put chains on my rental car while on the deck of a ferry crossing the Sound.
The other major storm was on January 20, 1993, the Inauguration Day storm. Our brief journey to the east coast was over, and we were back on the west coast where we belonged. Except somehow, we were in Washington State, instead of back in the Bay Area. And out in the middle of no where, south of Olympia, in a house on a lake, with a brand new child just two months old.
President Clinton was telling us what he was going to do. And then the power went out. And stayed out for three days. The snow was deep, the winds were biting, and everything got very, very cold. I almost sent the family to one of the Red Cross evacuation shelters. Some people were without power for well over a week, some for two.
It was the next year, I think, that Centralia/Chehalis flooded as bad as it now. We were fine where we were living. But when we moved up to outside Seattle, I made damn sure we were up on a BIG hill, high, high above the flood plain.
I have plans to get out a lawn chair, and sip a root beer as the volcano sends lahars streaming down the valley floor below, waving to the cars as they float away.
I also remember a Christmas eve storm in perhaps 1996 which was pretty brutal, snow everywhere, people unable to get places.
And other floods.
The thing about Seattle is, we get these big storms rarely enough, that when we do get hit, it sticks.
Colder than a nun's tit in Calgary but only light dustings of snow in the city, a shitload in the mountains.
Trans-Canada highway was closed at Alberta border for a couple of days due to avalanche hazard, and a woman and her four kids got greased by a semi in the mountains where our national highway looks more like a goat trail this time of year.
Pac NW getting some real weather though. Stay dry and hope your M-I-L is OK Jesse.
Stormcrow,
Great videos. I've only seen bumper cars bounce around like that. I agree with the creator of the 2nd video. Seattle drivers do suck. so do Portlanders, for that matter.
I'd be so pissed if some moron insisted on trying to drive as he collided with every car on the street.
I think we're supposed to be getting windy and snow in the next few days, but nice today.
That was amazing footage! Lot of water there. And that ice storm driving slide! yikes.
I was looking at moving up to Anacortes, looked perfect for me but still trying to figure out what work sitch would be nearby. Does that place flood up there, Jesse?
What a terrible mess up there with all those people flooded. Hope you and your family stay safe, Jesse and all up that way. Sending good energy for for all ya'll.
Yeah, Billy Joe. As you knew or guessed, that video was actually shot in Portland. But when I chanced across it, while looking for vids of the 11/27/2006 storm, I laughed myself silly for 10 solid minutes.
It brought back some memories.
I guess stupidity crosses state lines rather easily up here.
It was 7 outside this morning.
this got me to thinking, this is why neither the religious right or the enviromental left makes strong inroads. for the religious right, well all they can say is if we sin we will burn in hell....not muchof a therat when its 7 outside...amkes every one want to sin more.
For the enviromentalists, they scream about polutants causeign global warming and it makes us wnat ot grab cans of old school hair spray to speed up the process.
Myrtle June --
I don't know.
My mother-in-laws lower and upper fields were completely flooded, along with the shed on the upper field being underwater all the way to its roof.
But the water didn't make it up to the main house, the garden or the barn.
I know the main road is intact and people are getting through. If there was trouble, I'd know by now from my ex-wife. This is the third flooding of that area in 17 years, and the second one I've seen. I'm just glad I'm not living down there this time.
The last time I remember walking over a mile along a railroad track, then taking a boat across the water to someone's trailer which was built 8-10 feet up on a hump, per the code, which they'd been all pissed off at at the time, but it saved almost everything they owned, and still a bunch of their stuff got soaked.
That time, something like a zillion-trillion-gagoogleybabillion chickens died. It was a nasty health hazard. I'm hoping this time, they were smarter than the time ten years ago. (Don't quote me on the precise date. I'm not sure of it.)
Got to run.
Pacific Northwest power outages.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world...cas/
7128332.stm
Yall okay?
Jesse your expecting people to learn from the past.....good luck with that.
One thing about this one - Washington State Governor Christine Gregiore didn't sit this one out reading "My Pet Goat". By no means.
I voted for her in 2004, of course. But I never really respected her until this.
Plenty of respect now. In my personal ranking of politicians, she sits up there in Valhalla with Chris Dodd and Jack Murtha.
It'll be a privilege to vote for her again in '08.
Jesse:
I also remember a Christmas eve storm in perhaps 1996 which was pretty brutal, snow everywhere, people unable to get places.
I think we got that one in Portland, too. Trees and branches shut power down all over the place -- including my house, where I froze for three days (studying for exams) waiting for the power to come back on.
Thing is about Portland/Seattle drivers: they don't know shit about driving in winter, because they only get about three days' practice a year, and that in the worst possible conditions -- 31 degrees, sleet, snow, and lots of hills. Then it all melts and it's back to drizzle. Plus the local news throws an orgasm at the sign of one snowflake and sends StormTeamTwelve!!! to document Armageddon, which doesn't help.
stickler -
Precisely!
Everyone has a totally nutty.
I 'specially love how our Republican talk radio dude, Dorry on 710 KIRO goes totally wacko, when the winds come in:
"IT'S THE HURRICANE OF THE MILLENNIUM, THIS YEAR EVEN BIGGER AND BADDER THAN THE HURRICANE OF THE MILLENNIUM OF DECEMBER 2006!!! WINDS GUSTING UP TO 65 MILES PER HOUR. DON'T MISS MY NONE-STOP COVERAGE. I'LL HAVE AN INTERN REPORTING FROM NEAR THE OCEAN, LIVEEEEE ON TAPE DELAY, AT LEAST EVERY HALF HOUR, OR IF SOMETHING INTERESTING HAPPENS. HURRICANE OF THE MILLENNIUM COVERAGE ON YOUR STORM STATION, 50,000 WAT"
"Susan... Can we get some lights in here please?"
had to chip 1/4 inch of ice off my car5 this morning....my entire car including my door ....winter sucks
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