SNOW in SEATTLE ((picture thread))

4" in Fremont, still snowing.

Tomorrow morning will be, um, really interesting.

oh my god, my lights just flickered

:( :( :(

damn

sending u good thoughts

esp keeps lights on btw

the unexpected beauty of dot traffic cams
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/embarchie/sr167.jpg

Just got back from walk to the beach. So cool.

oh man I can't wait to go to golden gardens. If I can get back at all.

ok, 4-5" in Fremont and still gaining. Another wave started while was there.

The freezing rain brittle ice bark over the snow layer this morning made for a rather dynamic snow walk. "POW! POW! POW!" instead of "pttch pttch pttch"

has it ever snowed during a seahawks home game before?

It was a treat watching the fans trickle into our neighborhood today - usually they start around 9 am when the bars open, but today held off until after 11. People throwing snowballs around instead of footballs. I can't imagine sitting through a game today, but then I'm not a fan. Still snowing like it's never going to stop down here. No doubt it will be a ridiculous mess when the post-game traffic starts.

OK, my flickrstream

http://flickr.com/photos/8031083@N04/3125882661/

the "best" ones

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3094/3126692218_5f12231907_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3260/3125861553_71cd6b4e6b_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3208/3126689610_8ee3c55870_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3113/3126681722_bd63b1b7d1_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3219/3125850361_c88b6c3425_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3235/3126678770_805e33b20f_o.jpg

So, there was that freezing rain pre-dawn? It basically was like this ice Magic Shell over the snow. Or like an ice version of an M&M or Skittle coating. Crispy brittle and noisy when stomped on. I'm holding a piece of this "ice bark". The dark spots are my fingertips underneath the "bark"

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3240/3126677040_fd9c91cd61_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3239/3126675854_d1a4a8ee41_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3089/3125845115_ae7b670880_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3169/3125840851_7ea06bdb4d_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3246/3126669176_25e6433cb6_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3239/3126666626_fefb4d62f0_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3095/3125882661_c60d69134d_o.jpg

Flickr is so retarded when it comes to auto-rotating pics. Anyway, that says "Bad Ice!" at the bottom.

a skier on a cellphone just zoomed down our hill

"blah blah global warming blah blah" swish swish

so apparently another 4 inches by tomorrow morning.

I believe I will just hop on a bus on I-99 to work. If no buses run there, fuck it.

it's starting to feel like this might never end

At least half a foot here in Lynnwood. It hasn't stopped snowing since yesterday evening. Some kids in my apartment complex built an igloo. XD

It's still technically autumn here, guys.. well until tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the darkest day of the year, too. And the Monday before Christmas.

yeah, i'm officially tired of this, which is saying a lot coming from me.

Yeah, I think I'm reaching that breaking point.

http://media.townhall.com/Townhall/Car/b/lb1217cd20081216025038.jpg

isn't there supposed to be global WARMING????? lolololol

musicallyfish

greenwood tonight
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/embarchie/IMG_0069.jpg

KOMO news video of people slippin' around. First one is in Lower QA on 5th Ave N and Roy?

http://www.komonews.com/home/video/36520054.html?video=pop&t=a

Let the cat out this afternoon, so she could "experience snow." Promply ran away and hid under neighbor's porch. Took the better part of two hours, chasing her (gently) from yard to yard to finally corral her (shivering) beneath a small, palm-like shrub, before we finally got her back indoors, where she promptly vanished beneath the bedding. Later on, I walked down to the PCC on Aurora to lay in supplies (beer, brussel sprouts, pasta, canned tomatoes). CRAZY WITH THE SNOW! People out on cross-country skis everywhere. Almost no cars, those that were out getting stuck at every traffic light. Ducks quacking around Greenlalke like it was no big deal. Have never seen this city look so beautiful, and am loving every minute of this.

Cat in less snowy circumstances:
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj242/donaldparsley/DSC01500.jpg

The snow:
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj242/donaldparsley/DSC01594.jpg

Snowy apple ballz:
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj242/donaldparsley/DSC01592.jpg

Neighbor yard:
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj242/donaldparsley/DSC01595.jpg

Christmas berries:
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj242/donaldparsley/DSC01598.jpg

My yard:
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj242/donaldparsley/DSC01606.jpg

Lotsa pix on the way to the store, too, but it's a new phone and I don't know how to computerize em. Ah well...

did anyone else try to go to seattle this weekend and fail miserably? i am on my way home because the earliest they could replace my cancelled flight was xmas day, cutting a 9-day trip in half. i'm wondering if the snow itself was serious or if it would have been manageable for snow-familiar cities and seattle just wasn't prepared to deal with the amount of snow

Lots of snow by just about any measure, but yeah, Midwestern or Northeastern cities would have handled it fine. Seattle just doesn't have the gear to manage heavy weather, and people here get so freaked out that basic services (such as public transportation) fall apart.

I heard Seatac ran out of de-icer - snow has never been this prolonged here, and temperatures haven't been this cold in almost 20 years. Xmas day is iffy as well, since we are supposed to get more snow on Wednesday night.

Great pix, contenderizer - sorry your cat freaked out!

Should a city be prepared for something this out of the ordinary? I don't think so.

I'm thinking about switching my flight from Wednesday (7am-ish) to Thursday...it's supposed to snow Tuesday night but Wednesday night is supposed to rain. I'm sure a bunch of people have the same idea...apparently Alaska's phone hold time is in the 2-3 hr range.

Can you change it online?

Road report: Mr. Jaq was able to drive down 1st ave S, over the bridge, without too much trouble this morning. The Highland park drive hill is apparently impossible though.

For those of you outside the Pacific Northwest reading this...

Imagine if Los Angeles had freezing rain on the freeways for two weeks. What do you think would happen?

Imagine if Chicago had 110+ heat with high humidity for a month, with high winds that could force the loss the power

This is a bit of the equivalent of what's been happening in Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, etc. the past two weeks. We have plenty of snowplows but they are mostly dedicated to the areas that regularly get snow, and while us city folks have gotten nearly 6 inches of snow, more or less, which itself is a *20 YEAR EVENT*, the snowplows are busy trying to dig up several feet of snow for people outside Western Washington because those people *WILL DIE* if the snowplows don't save them.

Seattle and Portland people can far more easily walk to a convenience store or cafe and survive... the urbanities allow people here to survive far more easily with problems than people in the rural parts of Washington and Oregon. So the lack of de-icing and plowing is a sacrifice to make sure there isn't a major human catastrophe.

While I agree that we need a little more sanding and plowing support, if you're still wondering "OMG WTF SEATTLE DOESN'T DE-ICE EVERYTHING RIGHT AWAY? YOU GUYS ARE SOOO STOOOPID", then you can fuck off.

THAT SAID, if you were to suggest that the cities should allow better distribution of tire chains, better education, and allow the city police to TICKET CARS DURING ICE ADVISORIES THAT DON'T USE CHAINS, then I would agree with you, even though I don't expect my neighbors here on ILX to agree with me. Same goes with Metro, Sound Transit, and other public road transit re: ice warnings.

Having lived in the midwest through 3 major winter weather events, including the blizzard of '78, I can tell you that even a well-prepared city struggles when hit with large and prolonged amounts of snow. Seattle has been fortunate to not have lost power to large areas (as we did 2 years ago due to that horrendous wind storm in December).

btw I managed to get here yesterday - flight was fine, just had to wait for a gate on the Seatac tarmac for a couple hours. I have relatives who were trying to get to Alaska a couple days ago who still haven't been able to leave town.

no, you can't change it online...right now they are waiving change fees for certain dates and their website isn't supporting this emergency procedure. Their flight status lookup tool is down too.

fucccccccccccck this snow. how come it never snowed like this when i was a kid? back when i would have enjoyed it?

When getting directions at WSDOT I asked why, when the snow plow DOES go by, there's still 3"-4" of snow left on the ground - which then melts a little and freezes, making the situation worse than if they hadn't plowed at all.
WSDOT person LAUGHED and said, "yeah, it's sort of a secret" but they were afraid they might hit a manhole cover somewhere. Don't other cities have manhole covers too? What's different about ours?

I'd expect it has to do with the high camber of a lot of the streets here (necessary for rainwater management). Down in this part of town, the manholes end up elevated over the street surface (due to settling in the jello zone?), and I could see them not want to risk bashing a blade on one of those. The neighborhoods I lived in Indianapolis didn't have manholes, but also didn't get plowed, even in the worst weather. Only the heaviest use surface streets (state highways generally) saw state/city plows and everyone else just had to deal with it (or contract with the pickup truck guys that had blades).