West Seattle, Washington
25 Wednesday
(photo taken a few minutes before the Official Start of Summer)
Permit us a funny little brag. Admiral Neighborhood Association president Mark Wainwright sometimes begins his meetings by going around the room with an interesting question for each person in attendance to answer. During the ANA meeting on Tuesday, June 10, in the midst of June gloom, he asked everyone in the room to predict which date it would next hit 80 degrees. Many were pessimists .. August? Next year? Etc. For some reason, your editor here declared, “June 20th.” Everyone laughed. Well, just for the record, it’s June 20th, and the 4 pm temperature reading at Sea-Tac Airport is … 80 degrees. At Boeing Field, 81. And the next few hours are likely to be even warmer. Happy summer!!!!
That’s the view from the beach-facing window at Tully’s on Alki, where an elementary-school field trip just cleared out, blueberry-shake samples just circulated, and we’re working out of the house for a while just because … the forecast for the rest of the week doesn’t look this good and we wanted to see the beach before the clouds return. The photo doesn’t quite do it justice but there are a LOT of people down at the beach already, and not just obvious field trips (tomorrow is the last day of classes for Seattle Public Schools)! 2:37 PM ADDITION: WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli has been out and about too – he just sent these photos from south of Alki Point.
P.S. Those are different ferries, in case you were wondering – top photo shows a Super Class ferry, second photo has an Issaquah 130 Class ferry (here’s the WSF fleet guide, for our fellow ferry fans).
In comments on our running outage/storm coverage last night, Pete mentioned seeing this toppled tree on the fence bordering the east side of Cooper Elementary School‘s parking lot, so we went back this afternoon for a closer look. Hard to get perspective but that’s a five-foot (or so) fence pulled up by the tree roots. It’s in the greenbelt that stretches east from there, so it’s not blocking anything; the fence damage is the only real impact.
Interesting West Seattle tidbit at the end of the City Council Parks and Recreation Committee meeting that just wrapped up – the committee (chaired by West Seattle-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen) approved an “easement in perpetuity” for two property owners in the 39th/Barton vicinity (map) over Fauntleroy Park, six years after they fixed a problem described as tracing back to a winter 1997 landslide from their slope into the park. Parks Department employees at the meeting noted that “fair market value” was paid for the easement, though we couldn’t find the purchase price in the fine print of what the council just approved. No doubt there’s a ton of backstory on this; we’ve been digging around online and only finding bits and pieces, though it looks like there was at least one public meeting in 2001 prior to the city-approved/landowner-paid work that fixed the problem.
Thanks to “dq” for sharing that photo taken Thursday near Seacrest … a welcome sight to those who are not necessarily fans of the relentless grayness. (“Partly sunny” is in tomorrow’s forecast right now, but we’ve heard THAT before …)
Happening here, with the to-the-point subject line coined by beachdrivegirl, “What month is it?” The forecast does have a tiny bit of hope … ADDED AT MIDDAY: The view from Seacrest at 11 am today. (Low-tide pix to come)
You know, it’s a lovely day outside FOR FEBRUARY! and the worst part is that the cold temps coincide with the lowest tides of the year (tomorrow’s the lowest – as noted yesterday). Photographer Bob Bollen braved the elements and took some shots at Alki during low tide this morning.
So put on another scarf, stick the coffee in the microwave one more time, and enjoy.
Thanks to Amy for sharing that photo (she says that’s an Argosy boat near Blake Island). Tomorrow’s forecast is still described as “mostly cloudy” – but today turned out to be nicer than predicted, so we’ll just wait ‘n’ see. 12:35 AM NOTE: Hmm, didn’t have to wait long. It’s raining now.
Thanks to Shannon for that photo of tonight’s sunset, taken from Fauntleroy. We consider this the last night of spring, since it’ll be Memorial Day weekend by tomorrow night and that’s the unofficial summer kickoff even if the solstice is four weeks away!
Guess it won’t be TOO horrible if this forecast holds and Memorial Day is something like today (photo above shows an afternoon sunbreak along Lincoln Park’s north shore). At least Colman Pool will be open (we were so desperate today to get a glimpse, despite the plywood over the plexiglass on the west and south sides, we took our young assistant up on his offer to sneak a photographic peek through the drainage openings at the bottom of the brick wall):
Colman Pool’s opening day is Saturday (schedule here).
So says the latest forecast. (We’ve moved up the weather box on the right sidebar in the short run, for anyone interested in temperature-watching.)
(July 2007 WSB photo taken along Barton near Westwood Village)
The forecast still suggests it could get into the 70s and maybe approach 80 tomorrow. So by this time tomorrow night, we may all be pulling the cobwebbed fans out of the basement and so forth. For a refresher course (pun not intended) on heat-wave survival, we need only look back to some of what we wrote last July (Colman Pool tip not applicable yet, though; it opens for the weekends-only preseason on May 24).
Walking through the chilly drizzle just now, it’s tough to believe that forecast for summerish weather later this week – but maybe it’s for real – the city just issued an advance alert about keeping pets safe in high temps.
The Weather Service still says rain not likely in the metro area before Saturday night, so we’re looking dry for West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day 9 am-3 pm tomorrow. Here’s hoping. Meantime, quick links in case you are not already all geared up for shopping 143 West Seattle garage/yard sales big ‘n’ small tomorrow:
*Printable map with sale listings (8-page PDF)
*List of places to get preprinted map if you don’t have printer access
*Clickable Google map showing all sales (so you can take a closer look at locations)
*Info on fundraiser sales and contests
We’ll be spotlighting business and block sales later tonight. One fundraiser addition: The WSB Forum Community sale at 2655 45th SW will include a chance to donate to a fund that’s being set up for longtime WSB reader JanS, a self-employed massage therapist who’s going to be out of work a while after hip-replacement surgery this coming week (read more in this forum thread). And a couple trivia points: The northernmost sale is 1418 Palm SW; the southernmost sale is 3737 SW 108th; westernmost sale is 3247 64th SW; easternmost sale is 7937 11th SW. We’ll be out and about with as-it-happens coverage tomorrow starting in the 8 am hour (though again, official sale time is 9 am-3 pm) – and more previews are coming up later tonight.
David Hutchinson sent that closeup of Canada goslings near Don Armeni. Yes, we know, not everyone’s a Canada goose fan, but there’s still “awwww” factor. We got this wider shot of geese families this morning near Seacrest:
And from the Water Taxi this afternoon, a shimmering sunbreak as a state ferry headed west:
By the way, just heard the weekend forecast from the only TV meteorologist we truly trust, our former co-worker Walter Kelley at Q13 – he says no rain on Saturday unless you’re near the coast. Yay for West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day rainlessness!
Or so the latest forecast says. Hope so, before we all go nuts. We started an interview on Delridge at 5:35 pm under blazing brilliant sun … an hour later, thick gray clouds and cold rain.
Dustin in Arbor Heights (thanks!) caught some flakes on cam in Arbor Heights; below is the video we shot with our cam pointed out the car window while en route to “only because there’s not one in West Seattle” Trader Joe’s in Burien a short time ago – looked more impressive in person but here it is anyway:
In odd-weather times like these, we love the no-nonsense format of the UW-hosted National Weather Service text; you can check that forecast here. 9:43 AM UPDATE: A few flakes are flying here at WSB HQ in Upper Fauntleroy.
So says the National Weather Service in its latest “forecast discussion,” for those of you tracking Possible April Snow Panic ’08. (If ANY kind of weather is really possible, we vote for 75/sunny.)
SNOW? We’ll believe it when we see it, but here’s the forecast discussion.
WEST SEATTLE COMMUNITY GARAGE SALE DAY: 1 more week to sign up! Do it here.
“MASTER OF DISASTER” MAP: Pigeon Point just added. Click on your nearest site here.
TWITTER: Scroll to see the widget we just added to the WSB sidebar for our “feed” (we’re “westseattleblog”); plus, find breaking citywide news here.
The latest in the thrilling new series of “weather video from outside WSB HQ’s front door” — hail that moved through about 5:30. The forecast promises sun and mid-50s within a few days; we’ll believe it when we see it.
(Dusk video of snow added 7:59 pm) ORIGINAL 7:28 PM POST: Snowy up here in Upper Fauntleroy, just came from The Junction amid a snow/sleet mix. Got some great pix just in from the sun/clouds afternoon mix & will be adding momentarily. Update: Here are two courtesy of Chas Redmond:
7:30 PM: Forecast says snow showers could be in the picture at least through tomorrow morning. 7:37 PM: It’s STICKING already out there! ADDED LATER: Before the evening wave of snow … two more lovely pictures from earlier … first one at Don Armeni, thanks to Eric from fridgefoto.biz; second one, thanks to Dawson:
(keep scrolling down for updates and pix added to this post)
Big fluffy flakes now. Steady but still not cold enough out there to stick, even on cars. (37) 12:33 PM UPDATE: Kevin writes from Arbor Heights, 375-foot elevation, the snow’s “struggling to stick.” We’re around the same elevation here in Upper Fauntleroy and it’s finally starting to stick … walking out the door for a pic. Send yours if you get one. 12:44 PM UPDATE: OK, here’s our first one.
ADDED 12:54 PM: Thanks to JoB for this pic:
1:03 PM: Definitely sticking on the WSBmobile. May be enough for some snowball fights when school gets out this afternoon. (Spring break – ha! – is finishing for some of the private-school kids; Seattle Public Schools and some other private schools are out next week.)
1:10 PM: Some kids are out having fun already. Thanks to Karen for sending this next photo from Westwood. (P.S. We’ll let you know of any traffic troubles reported on the WS-bound commute this afternoon, of course; check cams any time here).
1:18 PM: Thanks to Sage K for these next 2 pics, from Delridge and Juneau, where it’s starting to stick. If you’re wondering about the forecast, seems this may not settle down till tomorrow.
1:33 PM: Thanks to “k” for sending this from Morgan Junction:
1:44 PM: From 51st/Hudson (map) comes this classic scene of spring vs. snow, thanks to Eileen:
2:04 PM: Snow’s lightened up in a big way, at least up here. Meantime, JenV sends this photo (thank you!) of frosty flowers, taken outside Buddha Ruksa (did you see the West Seattle 101 on WSB feature yet?) at lunch:
2:08 PM: Just in from Belvidere (or is it Belvedere? even the city has it both ways):
2:13 PM: Thanks to Trick in Arbor Heights for a new twist on the term “snow globe”:
2:18 PM: Snow’s stopped and the big melt has begun here – we can hear it through the rain gutters, and there’s serious drip action from the shrubbery. Some other West Seattle news has been stacking up in queue so we’ll get that going here shortly.
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