West Seattle weather 2070 results

The good news is …

… the really bad weather should be done by this weekend, so we can all enjoy the 2nd annual West Seattle Tree Lighting (this time it’s going to be at 42nd & Alaska, and county councilguy Dow C will be the MC) on Saturday. But in the meantime, we’ve got near-record cold in the works for tonight (here at WS Blog World HQ it’s a three-cat night … oh wait, we need another cat for that) and supposedly some more snow to smack us all tomorrow night into Thursday morning, with a chaser of rain, just like the big melt of ’96 (remember that one? that’s the worst memory we can muster, having not been here for Bridge Sinking ’90).

Road report

November 28, 2006 1:29 pm
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 |   Transportation | West Seattle weather

Scoped the roads while going home for lunch. The Bridge is in vastly better shape than it was this morning. You can hear the crunch and crackle of traction sand working its way into your tire treads, but that’s a much more pleasant sound than the screech of brakes, spinning of wheels, smashing into Jersey barriers and so on. Should be pretty decent for the evening drive home. The Admiral offramp still looked a little icy, though, so beware of that; the stretches of Fauntleroy and California that we traveled were relatively ice-free, but most side streets still look relatively ominous.

Brrrrr-idge

The approach to the high bridge has a lighted sign reading ICE ON BRIDGE … perhaps they should simply change it to STAY HOME OR ELSE.

Saw that one coming

November 27, 2006 10:46 pm
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 |   West Seattle schools | West Seattle weather

As of 10:45 pm, Seattle Public Schools have already decided tomorrow (Tuesday) will be a snow-closure day.

Half an hour and the street’s all white

Haven’t seen it snow this hard since the Post-Christmas Blast of ’96. P.S. In case you wondered, the city has a snow & ice FAQ. And there’s the handy-dandy list of streets most likely to be closed probably closed right this very second already.

It’s he-e-ere

November 27, 2006 6:05 pm
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 |   West Seattle weather

Six o’clock straight up and the latest wave of snow just hit our end of WS. Right after we drove through it on our way home from work … past Qwest Field, where as I write, Monday Night Football features the Seahawks hosting a team that’s more used to this kind of weather. This time, the snow seems to be more a matter of geography than altitude … a little while ago, the cars at Huling Brothers already had a decent coat of white, but by the time we passed Morgan Junction Thriftway, the ground was nearly bare … till now. Whoa, it appears to be snowing sideways at the moment. Be safe!

From wonderland to wind-erland

November 27, 2006 2:11 am
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 |   West Seattle weather

The snow’s stopped but now gusty wind has roared in. Looks like the experts think we’re done with the serious snow threat (till you get north of Seattle, anyway). Nice while it lasted (provided you didn’t have to drive last night). If you were wondering “how early did we see snow last year, anyway?” my memory didn’t help, either, but the archives of Metroblogging Seattle did.

Still snowing

November 26, 2006 7:19 pm
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 |   West Seattle weather

Just after 7 pm and here on the southern hills of West Seattle, it’s been snowing for a few hours, with flakes still falling and some slush on the street. Will this mean an extended Thanksgiving holiday for local schoolkids? No word yet. If it does, the info should show up here before dawn. Also remember that if you have to drive (hopefully not) we’ve got city traffic cameras, including the bridge, linked from our WS cams page.

Sad snowman

November 26, 2006 3:36 pm
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 |   West Seattle weather
sadsnowman
Discovered down & out along SW Myrtle Street near the reservoir (highest point in Seattle)

Got snow?

Woke up late and missed the actual snowfall up here on our hill, but there’s still a bit in the yard and on neighboring roofs. Not for long, though, since it’s raining and 37 degrees. We’re going out to see if anything’s photo-worthy; meantime, if you want to check out an actual Winter Wonderland, look at the live state cameras in Whatcom County.

Snow or no?

November 25, 2006 10:10 am
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 |   West Seattle weather

If you’ve checked the papers or watched tv, you may have heard the latest round of “it might snow” hysteria. Here’s the latest from the experts.

Set your cell-phone alarm tonight

November 12, 2006 7:10 pm
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 |   West Seattle weather

… just in case; our weather-geek pals tell us it could get windy enough overnight to take out the power. It appears the National Weather Service concurs. In case you want to write it down now, the City Light hotline for reporting outages is 206-684-3000; if you want to check first if someone’s already reported your outage, there’s supposed to be a recorded message along those lines at 206-684-7400.

Batten down the hatches

November 6, 2006 5:32 am
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 |   West Seattle weather

Hope you make it through the storm ok – heard some alarming forecasts out there such as “worst in years.” If something does go wrong in your neighborhood — the city’s got a lot of helpful information (including phone numbers) on this page.

Just how stormy is it?

If you really want to know and don’t have weather gadgets that can tell you … our favorite weather geek advises us there’s a close second. The National Weather Service posts “current observations” online from stations including Alki Point. Go to this page and look for K91S; I don’t even know what all the stats are, but the T column is temperature, the SP column is wind speed, the GS is wind gusts (when applicable). If you’re more inland, KBFI is Boeing Field, which is a little closer to much of West Seattle than the standard Sea-Tac stat cited in many spots for “official” city weather tracking. And if you want to go non-official, Weather Underground lists two people in WS with personal weather stations: one described as “North Admiral,” and “Weather at the Hoffmeisters’.”

Freakish fall

October 12, 2006 8:10 pm
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 |   West Seattle weather

Usually by this point in October, you can see what are literally the signs of fall: the “snow closure” road signs that city crews bring around and strategically tether to fixtures near steep spots — south end of Admiral, south end of Cali Ave, the nearly vertical drop on Charlestown, etc.

Instead of seeing these signs, we’re seeing record high temperatures and spectacular sunsets. So in case you’re missing typical fall weather, we found a reason to not miss it: the Columbus Day Windstorm, 44 years ago today.

Ice, ice, baby

When we moved into our house more than a few years ago, one of its selling points happened to be a relatively recent conversion to natural-gas heat. So much cheaper than oil or electric! … at the time.

Now, bills with LOTS of digits come sailing through the mail slot. And that’s just for the “average” winter temperatures we’ve had till now. Suddenly the big chill is upon us, the cars are frosted, my toes are frozen, and I can see far enough into the future to envision my first $200 heating bill spitting out of a PSE printer somewhere.

Storm? What storm?

February 7, 2006 10:34 pm
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 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle weather

Maybe it’s only a partial site update, but our friendly neighborhood paper has posted what looks like the weekly update tonight, and the only thing storm-related I can find so far is a bird picture oddly paired with an article about high school schedules.

Weather-related irony is lurking out there somewhere

Whatever national media might have reporters here in town to cover fans reaction to The Big Game, you know someone will write the story, should Our Team prevail, “As the sun came out after months of rain in soggy Seattle, football glory finally broke through the home team’s clouds of trophyless years.” Or something like that.

In other semi-weather-related news, the Beach Drive water woes merited just one little line in this Times report. Blink and you’ll miss it.

Can anyone tell me why even a small paper like the Herald, equipped with a 24/7 online site like just about everyone else in this day and age, can’t add breaking news like a storm damage report? Even a blog, for heaven’s sake. If they want to be the community’s source for news, it would be so easy to do.

As for that hideous WestSeattle.com — which pompously declares itself “the official site for the West Seattle community” (when did we vote; did I sleep through it?) — storm? what storm? Even tiny Caribbean island towns use their community sites for storm reports.

Rant off … for now …

Waterlogged

February 4, 2006 11:32 pm
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 |   West Seattle weather | WS breaking news

Just saw a TV news report (Q-13, if you’re keeping track) about flooding in a waterfront home along Beach Drive. Times like these are the only times I feel OK about not being able to afford such opulence — no chance of flooding here on the hillsides. (No, we’re not in a mudslide-prone position, either.)

As of this writing, the 520 bridge isn’t open yet — DOT has another handy page (separate from the link mentioned in the last post) with an update from just half an hour ago.

But at least here at West Seattle Blog World Headquarters, we’ll be watching The Big Game — no power woes after all.

Windstorm update, early evening

February 4, 2006 7:42 pm
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 |   West Seattle weather | WS breaking news

A flicker here, a flicker there, but we haven’t lost power again, here on the south side of WS. The City Light site (see link in post below) says only 50 “customers” are still powerless. Still breezy outside, but nothing too out of the ordinary, according to the National Weather Service’s current-observations page (hint, look for KBFI, which is Boeing Field, and check “sp” for sustained wind speed, “gs” for gusts).

However, the 520 bridge is still closed, one of a variety of Western Washington road closures, according to the state DOT traffic-alerts page.

Windstorm update, early afternoon

February 4, 2006 1:58 pm
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 |   West Seattle weather | WS breaking news

We’ve been out, as far north as the Junction, as far south as Burien.

No widespread panic, except for the crowd at the Junction liquor store trying to hoard hooch before, well, you know, that thing tomorrow.

We encountered only one spot of powerlessness, a couple blocks along Ambaum in what I fondly think of as North Burien.

If you’re in the city and you want to know what’s out where, turns out that Seattle City Light is posting updates on its site (scroll down) — fairly frequent updates, apparently; the one up now is from just 10 minutes ago.

Outage update

February 4, 2006 10:23 am
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 |   West Seattle weather | Westwood | WS breaking news

Westwood Village is out, according to the spouse of West Seattle Blogger, as of his visit around 10:15.

WSB World Headquarters on a hillside on the south end of the West side: not out; we had a blink around 8 am, so far as I can tell from the clocks.

Hope you are OK; more updates as we get ’em.

Complainin’ in the rain, just complainin’ in the rain …

January 10, 2006 9:45 pm
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 |   West Seattle weather

Buried inside a National Weather Service “forecast discussion” for the next few days … a new term that hints even the NWS guys and gals are gloomed out:

LONG TERM…SURPRISE SURPRISE…NO CHANGES MADE TO THE EXTENDED
FORECAST. MODELS STILL HAVE ONE SYSTEM AFTER ANOTHER COMING INTO THE
AREA WITH RAIN AND SHOWERS AND VERY BRIEF PERIODS OF
NON-PRECIPITATION IN BETWEEN. SUNDAY NIGHT LOOKS LIKE IT COULD BE A
LITTLE WINDY. OTHER THAN THAT…NOTHING NEW TO TALK ABOUT.