Neither Rain nor Snow nor Sleet nor Hail . . . .
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
The cold air layer was deep enough over the metro area this morning for a brief bout of sleet before changing to plain old rain. The east winds were so strong that most of the moisture evaporated before moving up the gorge so only spotty icing and then very very light.
NOWCAST - As the cold front moved through today rainfall amounts were generally around a tenth of an inch or so including some light sleet. As you can see from the graphic above, sleet is basically rain that falls through a very cold layer of air and freezes before reaching the ground. As the layer erodes, freezing rain can occur if surface temperatures are 32 degrees or lower. By that time, most of the county was above freezing and we just had a very cold rain . My high today was only 35 degrees after a low of 27 degrees. Vancouver only reached 37 degrees as of 5 pm. More rain tonight, scattered showers tomorrow and warmer. Christmas looks wet with seasonal temperatures for the highs. As of 8 pm this evening the barometer was falling rapidly as the low center heads towards BC. No big winds are expected except along the coast and northwest Washington. Could be gusty overnight locally.
FORECAST - Tonight: Rain. Breezy. Lows around 35. Southeast wind 15 to 25 mph with gusts 40 mph near the Columbia gorge.
Thursday: Showers likely. Highs 40 to 45. South wind 5 to 15 mph.
Thursday night: Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers. Lows around 35. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph.
OUTCAST - What a blizzard today in Colorado, Wow! To read more about it click on the weather/space news on the right panel or go to http://www.wxnation.com/weatherblogs/wire/
Boy, what I would give for a blizzard right now. I told my wife this and she said, hey let's head down to Diary Queen. Oh well, probably about as close as we will get to one this year. On the positive side, the next year is only nine days away and it's a whole new ballgame. I do remember a couple of good blizzards with 40-50 mph east winds, heavy snow, and temperatures in the lower teens. The snow was blowing off the rooftops like sand and snow drifts were several feet deep. Nice dry powder. The last time we came close to that was in December 1978/January 1979. Before that, back in 1968/1969.
Before we can get that to happen we need a good deep blast of arctic air from the far north to settle in over the area. No signs of that happening any time soon. You will have to go to the mountains to get that white Christmas around here folks.
Do you know our region is still wheeling from the big windstorm last week? About 100,000 people still without power in Puget Sound and the death toll has risen to 14 people. Many of these were from carbon monoxide poisoning from running generators. "We're dealing with a carbon-monoxide epidemic in Western Washington," said Dr. Neil B. Hampson at Virginia Mason's Center for Hyperbaric Medicine. "This has the potential to be the worst case of carbon monoxide poisoning in the country."
OFF TOPIC - I took in the Star Wars exhibit at OMSI yesterday and I must say I am glad I went. To stand just a a couple of feet in front of the models, props, and costumes actually used in the filming was a memorable occasion. It was a bit of a let down to see close up at these items and knowing they were not actually futuristic as they seem in the films. Yet, it was impressive,. The droid theater was the best with an inter active display where you enter a large-scale model of the rusted-steel interior of a Jawa sandcrawler, and meett C-3PO and (via video projection) real-world robotics engineer Cynthia Breazeal, director of the Robotic Life Group, MIT Media Lab. According to OMSI, "The robot and the roboticist debate the merits of R2-D2 and how researchers try to duplicate traits such as mobility, perception and cognition." The droid sits a few feet in front of you with several other robots. It talks and moves his head and brings you right in there. Also, I took a ride in the Millennium Falcon and the visuals were actual space shots from the Hubble Space telescope ( http://hubblesite.org/ ) That was worth the trip in itself. If you go, buy your tickets online the day before and get there at 9:30 am., Oh, the holiday laser show in the planetarium was equally as good. http://www.omsi.edu/starwars/
May the force be with you!
MY Quote of the Day - "Sometimes when there are no words you can say, a hug is the next best thing." - Pat Timm
-- posted by Pat Timm @ 7:58 PM,
2 Comments:
-
At 8:54 PM,
said...
-
I had a good period of sleet this morning, temps were around 34 when it started, so nothing really stuck around, though it struck me as odd. The cold layer must have been a little deeper than expected. Now things are warming up, 41.1, which is the warmest since early on the morning on Friday, right after the windstorm. Tyler
-
At 8:54 PM,
said...
-
You definitely have a way with words and making weather an interesting and more easy to
understand piece of our world.
Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year to you and yours.
Mary Ann
