West Seattle, Washington
09 Saturday
In effect till noon. Southwest wind 25-35, could see some gusts up to 45.
So said one member of the team, looking out at the ice on the street-parked cars. Hope you didn’t mothball your scraper yet.
Especially for you if you work outside West Seattle and are in that “isn’t it Friday yet?” mode. First photo courtesy of Chas Redmond, taken by cameraphone looking at the Olympics from Anchor/Luna Park along Alki Ave (the clouds are clearing now); the other two, we took after spotting a heron in the trees at Camp Long late yesterday:
First photo, High Point sunrise today (thanks, Steve!); second, Lincoln Park at mid-afternoon. Here are a few more photos we wanted to share:Read More
First, the wind advisory is now over. Second, if you work or travel through South Seattle/Sodo, there’s a power outage in the area right because of downed lines (possibly including nonworking traffic signals; lots of scanner chatter about this; here’s the official City Light description). Third, thanks to Dan E for this photo of everything washed up on the Alki boardwalk after a stormy night:
New forecast from the National Weather Service: Wind advisory extended till 1 pm tomorrow; gusts could hit 55 mph overnight. (Wildly windy already, on our west-facing bluff.) 6:35 AM UPDATE: Looks like the worst is over; the 4 am version of the forecast, same link, mentions up to 35 mph. No West Seattle outages or major road woes reported; if you’re driving elsewhere, the “traffic incidents” link atop the WSB Traffic page can be handy.
So says the National Weather Service forecast, 4 pm today-4 am tomorrow, 45 mph gusts.
Through 9 pm, says the National Weather Service. Gusts could hit 50 mph.
UPDATED 9:50 AM: Better photo from Bob Bollen (thank you!), followed by 40 seconds of video we went back to get right around the peak tide (about quarter past nine).
ORIGINAL POST:
This photo’s from just after 8 o’clock, and the high tide won’t even peak till just after 9 o’clock. But if you go out to gawk, wear something waterproof – the spray will get you all the way across the street from the water!
OK, doubters win on this one. National Weather Service is out with the new “forecast discussion” which pulls back the snow forecast for just about everywhere but Whatcom County and cancels the snow advisory. Sorry, West Seattle kids, looks like school tomorrow.
The National Weather Service updated its forecast late this morning; a “snow advisory” is now up for the entire metro area through 7 o’clock tomorrow morning. The “forecast discussion” suggests there’s a chance the commute could be messy – we’ll keep eyes/ears on viaduct/bridge/WS conditions so you can check here before leaving work.
As some comments have pointed out here, parts of West Seattle got a dusting of snow early this morning. Certainly a spotty snowfall — the photo above is barely a block east of us, along 42nd in Upper Fauntleroy, but there’s nothing on our street surface, just a thin layer on the car tops. Forecast calls for more tonight. 8:55 AM P.S. Looking ahead — a city news release reminds us that if you have a “street-condition emergency,” the number for reporting it is 386.1218.
We’re not taking much stock in the forecasts any more either, but if you’re keeping track, next rumored chance is tomorrow night. P.S. Tomorrow is a day off for many local students anyway, even without snow; it’s the Seattle Public Schools “day between semesters.”
As of the 3:30 am “forecast discussion,” anyway. 12:10 PM UPDATE: A few flakes spotted up here in Upper Fauntleroy! Serious stuff wasn’t expected till later so we’ll hold off on an official “snow panic” thread.
All the recent snow hints from forecasters didn’t translate to reality. But the National Weather Service‘s new forecast is out, and tomorrow night sounds serious.
Freedom Church (35th/Roxbury), midday today, the funeral of teenage shooting victim DeChe Morrison; photo e-mailed (thank you!) by Patrick:
As mentioned previously, police had a significant presence around the church, for reasons including the fact no one’s been arrested yet. The Southwest Precinct reports all was quiet; in the late morning, we noted groups of officers a close, but discreet, distance from the church, including these motorcycle officers at 35th/Barton:
Switching gears, we have two shots from this morning’s nearly simultaneous sunrise/moonset. The southeastward view is from Bill “at the top of Southern”:
And here’s the westward view, from Robert Stever:
Thanks to Bill and Robert for those photos … any time you have one to share, from the sunrise to the sunset to the fender-bender down the block, send it our way.
-Major car ice (no surprise since temp’s in the 20s); prep your scraping arm.
-Looks like another morning moonset in the making (big bright full moon in the western sky now).
We do, anyway. Two photos e-mailed to WSB earlier this week and held for when a “virtual sunbreak” might be in order (like now!):
That one’s from RPH, who took it while flying in on Tuesday. Next one’s from Bob Bollen, during Wednesday’s sunset:
Thanks to RPH and Bob!
The clouds have moved in over the top of the Olympics now, so we’re glad to have snagged this video view just for fun while out and about this morning.
Major ice on the car, so if you don’t have a garage to park in, you’re likely to need some scraping time. Looks like all the school delays are to the east and north. Same with the Metro changes. Forecast: Clear, cold day. Check traffic cams here.
While out for a walk a little while ago, we were passed by a car with slushy snow all over its hood. That gave us the hint it’s snowing somewhere not too far away; My Ballard, Central District News, and Seattlest verified that. Looking at the latest National Weather Service “forecast discussion,” doesn’t sound like it’ll get this far south. However, road ice could be a problem in the morning, the city warns. And Metro just sent this advisory about possible bus-service effects. Here’s the school-status link to check if you’re up mega-early.
In case you missed the spectacular sunbreaks while, oh, say, indoors watching The Game … above, we present a snippet of video from Beach Drive, as the sun held court over Vashon. Below, we dropped by the Pigeon Point Park environmental-restoration work party (video preview here) and while the Nature Consortium folks and their volunteers were just getting going, we found artist Aaron Voronoff already well into the process of making an ever-evolving sculpture out of trash and plant debris that work-party participants were collecting:
Voronoff’s creation was to be disposed of later, by the way. The Nature Consortium tells us that most of its work parties feature environmental entertainment like this, with artists, musicians, etc.
Five beautiful photos from WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli, capturing the rare sighting of the sun. First – driftwood and surf along Beach Drive:
A freighter heads north, with the snowy Olympics peeking through the clouds in the distance:
Heathers in bloom on Beach Drive:
A cormorant keeping watch atop a piling:
And the troubled (but lovely, we think) steel-electric ferry Quinault, one of the 80-year-old ferries that the state is ready to scrap because of their hull problems:
Forecast suggests this may be the last we see of the sun till sometime Sunday.
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