WeatherWatcher: Snow Day scenes, More on the way

Interurban Trail at Echo Lake Park, February 4, 2019.
Photo by Carl Dinse

A snow day for most on Monday, with 4 to nearly 5 inches on the ground throughout Shoreline and Lake Forest Park. Our high temperature of 30°F was at midnight and the temperature just kept dropping from there. The storm picked up and added a couple more inches of snow on top of Sunday's snow and graupel overnight into Monday morning. Our daytime high temperature at about 2:15pm was 26-27°F.

North-northwest winds got pretty gusty too, bringing down some trees and tree limbs, knocking out power to thousands in the area. We had gusts at the Richmond Beach station of about 29 mph before it lost power, and again after power was restored a couple hours later.

Fallen tree on power lines, Wallingford Ave N at N 197th Pl
Photo by Carl Dinse

This was the scene on Wallingford just south of N 200th St. The tree was knocked over pointing south. We may have had a few good wind storms this winter but all have been south winds. We haven't had a "pruning" of trees with winds from the north until Monday. North winds combined with moderate snow accumulation on the trees resulted in the widespread power outages.

10th Ave NE looking south by North City Park, February 4, 2019.
Photo by Carl Dinse

We've have some really cold air in place now. Our low temperatures dropped into the teens Tuesday morning. Richmond Beach reported a low of 19°F, while inland the Northridge station reported a low of 17°F. Other areas further from water and north where heavier snow fell saw low temperatures in the lower teens. Our high temperature on Tuesday was 30°F, and 31.7°F in Richmond Beach, just enough for sunny spots to have a little melt off.

Here's our daily high and low temperatures, graphed compared to the average at the Northridge station:

Forecast: More snow is on the way. In fact there isn't a real end to this cold arctic weather even in the 10 or 15 day forecasts.

It's probably a good idea to be prepared to deal with this stuff for a couple of weeks at least. I haven't seen a forecast or weather pattern like this since December 2008 (also known as snowmageddon). Some of you who have been here long enough may remember the infamous metro bus hanging over I-5 in Seattle.

Here's what I can tell you right now, there's uncertainty as always when it comes to forecasting snow timing and snowfall amounts here.

We have a storm coming in Friday evening. It is anticipated that snow will probably start falling around the 5-6pm time frame. This snow is expected to continue through Saturday afternoon. Total accumulations from this next storm are very uncertain, but ranges have been between 4 inches and 14 inches or so. None of the models have suggested anything less than 4 inches. Some have suggested up to 20 inches but I think that is unlikely at this time.

After Saturday's storm, we are looking at a chance of snow showers Sunday and Monday morning. Another storm approaches the area Monday evening for another round of accumulating snow, then a break Tuesday. Hints of even yet another snow event follow on next Wednesday.

I'm not going to try to give accumulation forecasts for the following storms until we get through the Friday/Saturday storm. As always keep checking back here for updates, I will provide them as new information becomes available.

For current conditions visit www.shorelineweather.com