Monthly Archives: March 2012

Once Upon A Time, It Was Really Warm

Posted on by at 8:28 pm
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Basking in the sun.

Swimming in the lake.

Working on your tan.

Odds are you were doing one of the above eight years ago, when Seattle set an all-time record for the warmest March day ever, topping out at a spectacular 78 degrees. Now, as a slow-moving storm system continues to drench the Emerald City (we’ve already had over an inch of rainfall today), it seems preposterous to think that March 29th could ever offer anything remotely close to nice weather. Yet such was the case in 2004, when even the low temperature for the day—56 degrees—was warmer than today’s high of 50 degrees. Not to rub it in or anything…
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Historic Oregon Snowstorm; Sunshine on the Way

Posted on by at 7:53 pm
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After losing by only a few points to the Huskies in the NIT quarterfinals Tuesday night, Oregon got buried on Wednesday.

By snow.

That’s right, Eugene—home of the University of Oregon and those despised Ducks—was blasted with 7.5 inches of snow yesterday as a historic snowstorm swept through the southern and central Willamette Valley. How historic was it? According to the National Weather Service in Portland, it was the greatest amount of snow ever recorded in Eugene this late in the snow season. You have to go all the way back to 1951 to find a bigger March snowfall at Duck Headquarters—and that one occurred in early March.
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Gradual Warmup in Sight

Posted on by at 9:31 am
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Tired of looking out your window at 37-degree rain every morning? Sick of straining your eyes to spot that rouge snowflake at 7 a.m.?

Rest assured, those days are numbered. In fact, once we get through today, it’s safe to say that we won’t be playing this rain/snow game in the morning—or at night—any longer.
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Near Miss Windstorm for Seattle

Posted on by at 11:04 am
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Watch out, Canada.

A very powerful surface low—the kind responsible for some of Western Washington’s most damaging windstorms—is headed for Vancouver Island on Monday morning. As it barrels across the eastern Pacific, the low is expected to rapidly intensify, deepening to a central pressure of 966 millibars—in other words, stronger than the infamous Dec. 14-15, 2006 windstorm that pummeled the Puget Sound region as it too tracked towards Vancouver Island.
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Surprise Snow for Seattle on Monday

Posted on by at 1:12 pm
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Get ready for another bout of snow—one that could affect the entire Seattle metro area tomorrow afternoon and evening.

After several days of waffling over how low the snow level could fall Monday afternoon, forecast models this morning have come to a somewhat shocking—and snowy—consensus. Their prediction? Snow levels will plummet dramatically—from several thousand feet all the way to sea level—by the noon hour on Monday. The University of Washington’s WRF model goes so far to suggest that temperatures will drop nearly ten degrees in a three-hour timespan tomorrow morning, as a very strong cold front barrels through the region. In other words, a 45-degree rain at 7 a.m. will become a 35-degree rain/snow mix by 10 a.m. Such a nosedive in temperatures is typical east of the Rockies, but in Seattle? In March?
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