Snowpocalypse III: The Dumping

[scarlettina]

Snow has descended upon Seattle once again. Despite grubbstreet's good-naturedly cranky assertion that we have gotten snow like this before, I must admit that this really does feel to me like a unique and remarkable phenomenon. I don't remember the snow piling up so high on my balcony railing before, or the city shutting down quite so completely. I could be wrong, of course. This happens rarely enough that it feels extreme to me.

And why am I posting at 6 AM? Because somewhere around 5 AM I woke up and have been unable to fall back asleep. What I've found as I've trolled the internets is that oldmangrumpus was trapped at Seatac Airport most of yesterday and never got off the ground, poor guy, and that snow has provoked cheap theater in Seattle. If only there wasn't a ginormous hill between me and Seattle Center, I'd go see Black Nativity. If the buses are running, maybe I'll venture forth and give it a try. I admit, however, that despite some pretty severe cabin fever, tempting the cold isn't an attractive prospect.

The wind that was promised along with the precip never hit my end of Queen Anne. It's still and quiet outside, and I still have power despite predictions to the contrary. Don't know what today's weather holds, though I'll say this much: It sure doesn't feel like the sun has returned.

ETA: 6:24 AM: The wind is picking up. I can hear the gusts through my windchimes and windows. This should be interesting. Also, the Seattle PI has posted a great slide show of snow pix.

Comments

[herself_nyc]

Your link doesn't go to snow pix.

Here it's now raining, just to make the snowy streets even messier and Miss Traddles even miserabler.
Stay warm!

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Staying warm--and I've fixed the link. Pix available now.

Great Snows of Seattle

[ladyjestocost.livejournal.com]

In the late 80s and early 90s we had some winter storms that were really bad. One dumped about 12" in a day, just before Thanksgiving. I think that was 1985. One came with extreme cold warnings in February - I think that was 1988. And of course, there's the one in 1990 that the weatherman keep going on about. That one started about 2:00 PM and no one was expecting it.

And of course, there was the storm the year we went to Yakima for Christmas. That would be Christmas of 1996.

But not a lot since then. I'm not sure which pattern is more 'normal' over the long run.

Re: Great Snows of Seattle

[ckd]

Yeah, there was an überdump (by local standards, certainly) in November 1985; I was going to a student organization's regional conference in Portland, and we had to take the train because we were supposed to be sharing a bus with the Kent chapters...and they were stuck in the Valley.

Portland had a couple of inches, which was very amusing to the attendees from various Utah chapters.

Re: Great Snows of Seattle

[dbara.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I remember too. Thanksgiving '85, February '88, and I think Christmas of '90, but that wasn't quite so bad. Before that you have to go back to the winters of '72 and '68. Before that my brain was too small.

db

Re: Great Snows of Seattle

[varina8.livejournal.com]

Thanksgiving, 1985. I always remember it because my mother was here visiting from Ohio.

Re: Great Snows of Seattle

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

I remember the 96 storm. We had just been here a year, and were living in a tiny apartment in Redmond. My parents were visiting for the holiday, and we got snowed in. Three days in 960 square feet with the parentals. ACK.

Also, that was the year that had the very wet rain on top of the snow, and then more snow on top of that, which collapsed a whole bunch of tin roofs, including the one over my car, smashing out the rear window.

[oldmangrumpus.livejournal.com]

This. Is. NOT. Normal.

[sleightgirl.livejournal.com]

It even snowed here in Las Vegas...it was so cool! (no pun intended)

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

I was there! We went there to escape the Seattle cold, and apparently brought it with us. It was hilarious to see the locals bundled up like it was a blizzard.

[sleightgirl.livejournal.com]

I was one of the bundled...and it was my first time driving in snow...I was scared to death!

[tbclone47.livejournal.com]

I think the snow of 1990 was probably more debilitating for the Seattle area. I remember it because it was on December 18th, the day before my birthday. Seattle had a foot of snow and there was virtually no snow in Everett or Sea-Tac airport because of the convergent zone thing. What made it difficult was that the snow was completely unforecast...there wasn't the high resolution weather prediction models used today. And it wasn't a Saturday, it was a weekday. The snow didn't start sticking until the late afternoon, and people were trying to get home from work.

My sister called me from work in Kirkland, said she'd gone two blocks in half an hour, and decided to go back to work and wait it out a while. She called me again after midnight to tell me she had made it home: 4 hours to drive what normally was a 15 minute drive. The traffic was so snarled, and backed up, that people ran out of gas, or got stuck, and abandoned their cars, and no one could get around them.

The next day (my birthday), I called my sis and said Dang it, it's my birthday, I'm driving up to Kirkland and we're going to see a movie. I had to weave around cars scattered on the freeway onramp like some apocalyptic scene from a disaster movie. I popped over to the left lane and got up there without too much trouble.

[singingnettle.livejournal.com]

Yes, I remember that one because it was my first year in Seattle, after a perfect summer...I walked home from the city to the east Hill because there was no other way to get home and discovered feet-high drifts up on the Hill and it took me hours, and I literally almost froze. When I got home I was turning blue and I remember the owner of the group house I lived in, who didn't even like me, bundling me up in the middle of the kitchen and feeding me teaspoons of rum, and everyone else hovering anxiously. My memories of that are a little fuzzy, understandably. But then all the housemates stayed in the house and played games for the week or more that the city was shut down and we bonded and became the closest of friends, which changed all of our lives. I owe a lot of my experience of living in Seattle as it was shaped by relationships to that snowfall.

[twilight2000.livejournal.com]

When K was 2 or 3 it dumped 14 inches in a matter of 2 days right around Christmas -- we have pix of her up to chest in the stuff ;>. That'd be 97/98...

[sara-ramirez-1.livejournal.com]

the last 2 days i have been up at 4am and not able to get back to sleep till about 6 so i get online as well however i know if i HAD to be at work i would be in bed forcing myself to sleep.. But since now i am on vacation i dont have to worry about that LOL