SNOW in SEATTLE ((picture thread))

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).

i had my christmas nice stranger moment: some guy stopped at our bus stop--people had been waiting an hour--and drove us all downtown. HEY MR AWESOME GUY THANX

nice

Had a job interview canceled on me today. Dude that was supposed to interview me couldn't make it is stuck in Marysville. :-/

There's no need for Mackro and others to get defensive about the question. It's just frustrating to be back in NY when I had hoped to be in WA at this time with family.

Apologies for seeming belligerent, and this wasn't directed at you, Robie, although it did make me snap a lil'

At least, I hope I didn't come off like THIS GUY from last night at the corner of Queen Anne Ave N and Roy St. in LQA. Holy shit!

I hope the guy gets arrested. He could have avoided all this if he just WAITED to lose his temper at Ozzie's.

Robie, I'm sorry your flight was canceled and empathize with your frustration, but, really, asking if the snow was "serious" or if a midwestern city could have handled it was silly - this amount of snow was serious for Seattle obviously or any other city where December temperatures rarely dip below freezing.

Holy shit that video. I hope that fucker gets arrested too.

any thread where jaq drops science/crushes fools is A+ by me.

― alpha ville (jergins), Sunday, December 14, 2008 10:14 AM

Oh stop that, yr making me *blush*

Another Asshole vs. Sledders here

Union and 17th, I think(?)

Happier times. People skiing and sledding down south side of Queen Anne Ave

Oh not again. I drove both south and north yesterday and the surface streets were awful - huge ruts and pits, ice and refrozen slush, slick everywhere. Nerve-wracking.

Snowing again. It's been what, two weeks since it started now?

got stuck at 23rd & Union yesterday morning. It took 20 minutes and 2 additional guys to free the car. We bailed on our plan to drive to Olympia. Had to work up in Mountlake Terrace today and got stuck in their parking lot - then it snowed all friggin' day. grrr.

so it's still snowing? i wouldn't know, being in california and all

north of like 145th st it was still snowing, though air temps were around 35. Starting around Northgate, it was more rainy. Rain mixed with snow forecast for overnight, but hopefully temps up into the 40s tomorrow. Enjoy California and bring home some dry weather + sunshine plz.

I spent most of Christmas day helping to push people's cars around. I was kinda pissed at my friend for even trying to drive in the first place, but somehow with the help of a neighbor and his kids, plus some valuable advice from a cop across the street who yelled through his megaphone at us, we actually managed to get out onto Aurora. Then when we got to his house, we helped some more people.

What I learned is if the car isn't moving forwards, try going in reverse a little and then moving forward again. Repeat.

holy shit those buses!!!!

I've never been so damn glad for it to rain and rain and rain. Snow/slush has been reduced to small filthy piles at the corners of intersections and parking lots.

holy shit those buses!!!!

Yeah, no kidding. I was listening to this lady tell another guy at the bus stop her bus horror stories and expecting to get this "OMG" reaction. Little did she seem to understand that both the dude and myself had horror stories of our own.

It's all melting away!

That drizzle sure is a potent snow removal device!

well, having it be above freezing at night for once helps too

You know, thanks to all of this, I now know what cabin fever feels like. I didn't really suffer it, but I was *just* about to.

damn there is still so much snow in Everett right now way more than Lynnwood

Doh, I totally lost those original images that I created this thread with. I still have this one, can't remember if it's from that storm or not:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/13/90721313_8030e0e42f_o.jpg

I hear that Nichols is now saying that they'll use salt in future massive snowmageddons. At least they finally learned ;-)

there's a good layer of snow in bellevue right now

wtf

There's a good layer of snow in Lynnwood right now. Really coming down. Not even all the old snow had quite melted away. This fucking winter.

i can't believe this winter wonderland bullshit AGAIN