nonstop

The turn to winter continues.

After a mild Nov-Jan span lulled us into complacency, the February parade of cool Yukon air has now sat upon (or very near) us for three weeks now. Piles of shoveled snow remain from the storms that began on the 8th and peaked on the 11th, though the unshoveled snow had finally melted off our yard, deck and driveway in the past few days.

And now this. Almost three inches fell this afternoon as I came home from work. The wet flakes in Longview proper became a slick inch on the roads above 450 feet.

The forecast this morning was for several snowy nights with no real accumulation, followed by rainy days that would essentially rinse it all away. That's now looking pretty rare on this evening's chart above! The Sunday/Monday event could leave four inches, though w.Underground says 5-8" is feasible. They were pretty close with the earlier storm, though they stayed cool as the slow melt removed our saucer-runs on the driveway.

And this time?  Stay tuned!

regional snowpack improvement

One of the very good effects of the recent snow/slush events is the west-side snowpack. This chart was solid-gold in the Cascades for the entire season - but not any more! While still below average, the map at right shows the improvement from gold to yellow. More storms are heading toward us and below-normal temperatures remain, so the good news should continue. A few more basins could be turning green in the near future!

The Sierra have received feet of snow during this time, and numbers down there have reached 150% and more - good news for them too after several bleak years. Not as much fun for the PGA and their California/Arizona events, but they will manage. Tournament payouts do not seem to decrease just because people got a bit wet and chilly, so complaints are not reaching me about this.

yep it snowed in February

As I type we're at 11 inches and counting. We are right on the forecast margin here, as Longview is wet and most radar echoes are alternately painted white or green at our location. This is part of a warm front that may lift far enough north to switch us to rain - or maybe not. Then it swings back down again as snow. That part is pretty likely.

This cool retirement home is a fun place in winter, but I did accept a part-time job down below; it's awkward to call out as unavailable/snowed in.  Had the Fiat not been stuck on our driveway perhaps the Explorer would be tractioned up and ready to take me down the hill. Ah well - one does what one must.

An interesting side note:

February is the big-snow month here, at least since we got here. I'm much more accustomed to December as the big-snow month, as it was in 1968 and 2008 - but the top snow measurements here have been the past three Febs! Most of these values are consecutive-day measurements which makes it look more impressive - but every day with 5" or more has been in month #2.

Curious.

freaky February

After a rather dry and very mild early winter, this El Niño is turning the tables.

The eastern USA got hammered with a storm as brutal as any in 20 years, with subzero readings and nasty wind chills all over the region. That mutated into a spectacular warmup that moved the bitter air to the Yukon - and that air has decided to come south.

This past week we had 1/2 inch of snow, and it hasn't gone anywhere except under direct sunlight. And the forecast has wavered a few times, but today it looks like this -

The weather service forecast at top would give us a range of 2-5 inches through the weekend, and clearly WxUnderground goes a bit above and beyond. At this point that extra half-cord of wood I bought seems like a genius move, but two weeks ago it seemed merely an exercise in giving me exercise as I stacked it wherever I could find a spot. 

We'll see how this works out a week from now. It's a real departure from the El Niño blueprint, which tends to start as a normal winter before going mild and dry later on.

chance of rain

So here's a 24-hour expected rain meteogram for our location. 

About 1.9 inches in 24 hours. Oof.

And yes, some rain is expected before and after. We Shall See how this totals up!

so ends another calm period

And so resumes the autumn!

We are currently over 7 inches low for November - this could bring us almost level!

first frost..

.. hasn't happened yet.

It's a fun law of thermodynamics that keeps us warmer than the valley floors where I grew up.. or at least became old. Halloween is my 'expected' time of frost, give or take a few days (i.e. whenever the skies clear up between storm fronts). It should be a full moon too, just to be right - and I should be listening to old Uriah Heep tunes!

Oops, mental derailment..
Life at 750' means watching most fog develop below our hill-top, where the cool air sinks and condenses. Cold-air drainage is the real deal, and we watch it frequently when the air-mass is relatively tranquil.

A few weeks back I saw a few light patches of frost in lower Longview, on well-drained bark dust. It didn't really count since it was so limited. They may have frosted last night, as the official readout showed 33° (all 'official' readouts come from at least three feet above ground level) and Scappoose came in at 28°. We stopped here at just under 35° - when I went to bed it was about there, and so it was this morning after several tiny fluctuations.

If the air got colder it slid downhill before reaching my semi-'official' readout on a 5-foot pole. Not much warmer in the hills with this pattern - but enough.

And so we continue to wait for our First Frost.